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THE 



LIFE 



SAMUEL JOHNSON, D.D. 

THE FIRST PRESIDENT OF KING'S COLLEGE, IN NEW YORK. 



CONTAINING 

JIANY INTERESTING ANECDOTES; A GENERAL VIEW OF THE STATE OF RELIGION ANI» 

LEARNINO IN CONNECTICUT DURING THE FORMER PART OF THE LAST 

CENTURY; AND AN AOonrjMT oi- the INSTITUTION AND RISE OF TALE 

COLLEGE, CONNECTICUT; AND OF KINO'S (NOW COLUMBIA} 

COLLEGE, NEW YORK. 

BY / 

THOMAS BRADBURY CHANDLER, D.D. 

Formerly Rector of St. John's Church, Elimbeth Town, New Jersey. 




TO WHICH IS ADDED AN APPENDIX, 
CONTAINING MANY ORIGINAL LETTERS, NEVER BEFORE PUBLISHED, 

FBOM 
BISHOP BERKELEY, | ARCHBISHOP SECKER, 
and OTHERS, 
to DR. JOHNSON. 



, Interesse etiam Reipublica; existimo, ut exempla talium Virorum Literis mandentur, et 
ad aliorum sive imitationem sive admonitionem sive opprobium proponantur. 

Dr. Bentkam, de Vita et Moribus J. SurloiiL 



NEW YORK : 
PRINTED BV T. & J. SWORDS, PEARL STREET. 

RE-PRINTED FOR C. AND J. RIVINGTON, 

ST. Paul's church-yard, and waterloo-place, PAXL-MALr. 

1824. 






LONDON : 

PRINTED BY R. GILBERT, 

ST. john's-square. 



ADVERTISEMENT 

TO THE 

ENGLISH EDITION. 



The American Edition of this Volume 
was published under the superintendance 
of the Right Rev. Bishop Hobart of New 
York, as Editor, into whose hands, from 
his connexion with the family of Dr. 
Chandler, the original manuscript had 
fallen. It is now republished in England 
at the suggestion of several individuals, 
who conceive that it affords an interesting 
account of the rise and progress of the 
Episcopal Church in a portion of the 
United States, and exhibits, at the same 
time, the lively interest which was taken 
in its welfare, by distinguished Prelates of 
the Church of England. 



THE 



LIFE 



DR. SAMUEL JOHNSON. 



Dr. Samuel Johnson, the first President of 
King's College, in New York, was born at Guil- 
ford, in Connecticut, October 14, 1696. His fa- 
ther Samuel, and his grandfather William, were 
both persons of reputation, and successively 
Deacons of the church in that town, which was 
formed on the congregational plan, at that time 
almost universally received throughout the 
New England colonies. His great-grandfather 
Robert, came from Kingston upon Hull, in 
Yorkhire, and was one of the first settlers of 
New Haven, about the year 1637. He was pro- 
bably of the same family with Johnson, the 
associate of Robert Brown, the father of the 
Brownists. 

Samuel Johnson, the subject of this memoir, 
was taught to read, when very young by his 



2 LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 

grandfather, who was uncommonly fond of him, 
as he appeared to be a child of a remarkably fine 
genius and disposition. Before he was six years 
old, at which time his grandfather died, he was 
observed to have an inquisitive turn, and to dis- 
cover an eager curiosity to see and learn all 
that could be shown or taught him. At this early 
period, meeting with a book in which there were 
some Hebrew words, he was impatiently desirous 
of knowing their meaning ; but, to his great mor- 
tification, he found none who were able to in- 
form him. He was only told, that these words 
belonged to the language that Was used by 
Moses and the Prophets, and in which the Old 
Testament was originally written. From this 
time he became easnestly desirous of learning 
Hebrew ; and after he was acquainted with it, 
it afforded him peculiar pleasure through the 
whole of his life. In consequence of such pro- 
mising symptoms, his grandfather proposed that 
he should be educated in the college then about 
to be erected in the colony. 

Upon the old gentleman's death, however, the 
father seems to have dropt that design for a con- 
siderable time ; but after a trial of four or five 
years, finding that his son's fondness for books 
was unconquerable, and that it was impossible 
to reconcile him to the thoughts of any other 



LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 3 

business, he at length determined to comply with 
what was fully discovered to be his natural dis- 
position. 

The school in Guilford at that time was kept 
by Mr. Eliot, a man of parts, and afterwards 
of much eminence in the country, of whom the 
reader will hear frequently in the sequel. To 
this school young .lohnson was sent, in the 
eleventh year of his age, where he made great 
progress in Latin, and was happy in his master's 
affection. But unfortunately for him, before the 
year expired, Mr. Eliot left the school, and 
settled at Killingworth as a preacher: so that 
with an impatience to learn, which had been in- 
creased by this promising beginning, he was 
left without an instructor. After a while he was 
sent to North Middletown, and put under the 
care of the Minister of the place ; but this man 
was so wretchedly qualified for the business of 
instructing, and was so ignorant of Latin, that 
his pupil could learn from him little or nothing. 
Dr. Johnson often lamented his loss of time here, 
at such a season of life ; although the whole 
amounted to no more than half a year. 

Upon his return to Guilford he was at first 
put under the care of one Mr. Chapman, a tole- 
rable instructor ; and after some time he had 
the good fortune to fall into the hands of Mr. 

B 2 



4 LIFE OF DR. JOHNSOIST. 

James, who, having been educated in England # 
was an excellent classical scholar. Under him 
he made such progress in Latin and Greek, that 
by the time he was fourteen years of age he 
was judged to be well fitted for the college, 
which was then at Saybrook. 

Mr. Noyes, his first tutor at college, had some 
little knowledge of Hebrew ; and as young Mr. 
Johnson, after keeping way with his class in the 
appointed academical course, had considerable 
time to spare, he devoted it to Hebrew, which 
soon became his favourite study. He pursued 
his other studies under the direction of Mr. Fisk, 
a tutor whom he respected ; and took his degree 
of Bachelor of Arts in 1714. 

Learning seems to have been at its lowest ebb 
in the country about this period. Among the 
first settlers of Connecticut, there were several 
persons who had received a regular education at 
the universities in England, and were distinguish- 
ed by their learning and abilities ; at the head of 
this list appear the venerable names of Daven- 
port, Hooker, Blackman, Stone, &c. But this 
set of men were gone off the stage, and were 
succeeded by others, who had only such an 
education as a new country afforded, while but 
little attention could be paid to literature, and 
while the advantages for obtaining it were pro- 



LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. O 

portionably small. The great deficiency of the 
country in point of learning was hardly known 
or suspected till the college was erected ; but 
then it appeared in too strong and glaring a 
light to be any longer a matter of dispute. 

The best scholars in the colony were at the 
head of this institution. They were thoroughly 
engaged in establishing its reputation and in- 
terest ; they marked out the plan of education ; 
they appointed the instructors ; and every thing 
was conducted according to their direction : yet, 
after all, the figure it made was but rude and 
awkward. For many years the utmost that was 
generally attempted at the college, in classical 
learning, was to construe five or six of Tully's 
Orations, as many books of Virgil, and part only 
of the Greek Testament, with some chapters of 
the Hebrew Psalter. Common arithmetic, and 
a little surveying, were the ne plus ultra of 
mathematical acquirements. The logic, meta- 
physics, and ethics that were then taught, were 
entangled in the scholastic cobwebs of a few 
paltry systems, that would now be laid by as 
proper food for worms. Indeed, at this time 
when Mr. Johnson took his Bachelor's degree 
the students had heard of a certain new and 
strange philosophy that was in vogue in England, 
and the names of Des Cartes, Boyle, Locke, 



b LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 

and Newton*, had reached them ; but they 
were not suffered to think that any valuable im- 

* The great improvements in learning, and the rapid pro- 
gress in science that were made in Europe in the course of the 
seventeenth century, were chiefly owing to the light and di- 
rections held out by Lord Verulam, one of the greatest 
geniuses that ever arose for the instruction of mankind. In 
particular, this incomparable person contributed so eminently 
to the improvements that v/ere made in natural philosophy, 
that the important service he did to this branch of learning, 
to say nothing of others which were equally indebted to him, 
would have been sufficient to render the name of Bacon im- 
mortal. " He opened the eyes of those who had been led 
blindfold by the dubious authority of traditionary systems, and 
the uncertain directory of hypothesis and conjecture. He led 
them to nature, that they might consult that oracle directly 
and near at hand, and receive her answers ; and, by the in- 
troduction of experimental inquiry, he placed philosophy upon 
a new and solid basis. It was thus, undoubtedly, that he 
removed the prejudices of former times, which led men to 
consider all human knowledge as circumscribed within the 
bounds of Greek and Latin erudition, and an acquaintance 
with the more elegant and liberal arts ; and thus, in the vast 
regions of nature, he opened scenes of instruction and science, 
which, although hitherto unknown or disregarded, were infinitely 
more noble and sublime, and much more productive of solid 
nourishment to the minds of the wise, than that kind of learn- 
ing that was in vogue before his time." See Mosheim's Eccles. 
TJisL by Dr. Macclaine, vol. iv. p. 259 of the second edition. 
See also Biog. Brit. Art. Bacon. 

It was exactly upon his plan that the Royal Society in 



LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 7 

provements were to be expected from philoso- 
phical innovations. They were told that a new 
philosophy would soon bring in a new divinity, 
and corrupt the pure religion of the country; 
and it was not intended that they should vary 
the breadth of a hair from Ames's Medulla and 
Cases of Conscience, and Wolkb'ms, The trustees 
had been careful to establish these as the stand- 
ard of orthodoxy and true theology as soon as 
they were authorised to act : for at a meeting on 
the 11th of November, 1701, held at Saybrook, 
they appointed for their first and most funda- 
mental rule — " That the Rector take special 
care, as of the moral behaviour of the students 
at all times, so with industry to instruct and 
ground them well in theoretical divinity; and 
to that end, shall neither by himself, nor by 
any other person whomsoever, allow them to be 

England; that Galilei, in Italy; that Gassendi, in France; 
that Tycho Brahe, in Denmark ; that Kepler, Hevelius, and 
Leibnitz, in Germany ; and the two Bernoulli, in Switzerland, 
proceeded ; and, in consequence of pursuing his directions as 
far as was practicable, they made such improvements and dis- 
coveries in mathematical and philosophical knowledge as justly 
astonished the learned world. But to all this the people in 
Connecticut were entire strangers. They knew nothing of the 
state of learning, at this period, but as it existed near a century 
back, before it had been organised, quickened, and directed by 
the penetrating genius of Sir Francis Bacon. 



8 LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 

instructed and grounded in any other system or 
synopsis of divinity than such as the said trus- 
tees do order and appoint : but shall take effec- 
tual care that the said students be weekly (at 
such seasons as he shall see cause to appoint) 
caused memoriter to recite the Assembly's Cate- 
chism in Latin, and Ames's Theological Theses; 
of which, as also Ames's Cases of Conscience, he 
shall make, or cause to be made from time to 
time, such explanations as may (through the 
blessing of God) be most conducive to their 
establishment in the principles of the Chris- 
tian Protestant religion*." 

The students, being compelled to move in 
these literary and theological trammels, could 
make but small progress in useful science. And, 
indeed, had they not been thus circumscribed, 
their opportunities for improvement were incon- 
siderable. There were no books in the coun- 
try but such as were imported with the first 
settlers, near a century before, and which were 
published before learning was methodised and 
refined from the rubbish and dross of the school- 
men. It was looked upon as time well employ- 
ed, and all things considered, perhaps it really 
was, for those who were desirous of making a 

* See Mr. Clap's History of Yale College, p. 10. 



Lli'E OF DR. JOHNSON. 9 

figure in learning to draw up a synopsis or 
abridgment of some of those old English or 
Dutch systems which the country afforded. In 
this way Mr. Johnson was eminent; and he 
went so far as to venture upon drawing up a 
small but general system of all the parts of 
learning within his reach, in which the nume- 
rous scholastic distinctions and definitions were 
duly adjusted and arranged. 

He was now thought an adept, and he himself 
had no small opinion of his own abilities as a 
scholar. But after a year or two he met with a 
book, which his curiosity prompted him to pur- 
chase. This was Lord Bacon's Instauratio 
Magna, or Advancement of Learning, and per- 
haps the only copy that was then in the country. 
He sat down to it with great eagerness ; and as 
his love of knowledge and truth was his ruling 
passion, he endeavoured to divest his mind of 
all prejudice, and to study that great work with 
the utmost impartiality and candour. The care- 
ful reading of such a book soon brought down 
all his towering imaginations, and reduced him 
to a low opinion of his own abilities. In short, 
every thing appeared new to him, and he seemed 
to himself like a person, to use his own expres- 
sion, " suddenly emerging out of the glimmer 
of twilight into the full sunshine of open day." 



10 LIFE OF DR. JOHNSOF. 

About this time some presents of modern 
books were made to the college library. The 
collection sent over by Mr. Dummer, who was 
agent for the colony, amounted to eight hun- 
dred volumes; to which collection many emi- 
nent writers of the Church of England, both 
laymen and clergymen, contributed, by giving a 
set of their own works ; particularly Sir Isaac 
Newton, Sir Richard Blackmore, Sir Richard 
Steele, Dr. Burnet, Dr. Woodward, Dr. Halley, 
Dr. Bentley, and Dr. Kennet. Mr. Johnson 
then embraced, with inexpressible pleasure, the 
opportunity of reading the works of our best 
English divines, philosophers, and poets. Among 
other authors, he carefully read the works of 
the great Drs. Barrow, Patrick, South, Tillotson, 
Sharp, Scott, Whitby, and Sherlock. To one 
in his situation, all this was like a flood of day 
breaking in upon his mind. 

Under these new advantages, one would ima- 
gine that the general literary state, both of the 
country and the college, would soon have put 
on a new and better appearance. Yet Mr. 
Johnson observes, that but very few discovered 
an inclination or curiosity to consult any of 
the above-mentioned excellent writers, except 
Messrs. Cutler, Eliot, Hart, Whittelsey, Wet- 
more, Brown, and himself. Mr. Cutler was 



LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON, H 

educated at Harvard College, in Cambridge, 
graduated in 1701, and had congregational ordi- 
nation at Stratford in 1710, where he continued, 
in high esteem, as the parish minister. Messrs. 
Wetmore and Brown were Mr. Johnson's class- 
mates at college : the others were young minis- 
ters in some of the neighbouring towns, and 
confined their reading chiefly to the writers in 
theology. Their common fondness for the new 
library often brought these gentlemen together, 
and occasioned them to enter into a particular 
acquaintance and correspondence with one ano- 
ther. Of these worthy associates, Mr. Johnson 
and Mr. Brown entered into the closest league 
of friendship ; and they j oined together in study- 
ing the philosophers as well as the divines. 
They also read the classics in some of the best 
editions. 

In 1715 the college at Saybrook was in no 
small danger of breaking to pieces. The scho- 
lars entertained so mean an opinion of their 
tutors, that they despised them, and refused to 
pay them any marks of respect, openly com- 
plaining that they could learn nothing from such 
teachers. At length most of them, one after 
another, went off, seeking for better instruction, 
which, indeed, it was difficult to find. Those 
belonging to the towns on Connecticut river 
§ 



12 LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 

joined together, under the direction of Messrs* 
Woodbridge and Buckingham, ministers at 
Hartford, who were trustees of the college. 
These two gentlemen being desirous of obtain- 
ing a removal of the college from Saybrook to 
Weathersfield, in their own neighbourhood, per- 
suaded Messrs. Williams and Smith to set up a 
collegiate school at Weathersfield, to which all 
the young gentlemen above-mentioned speedily 
resorted: while some, who belonged to the 
towns on the sea shore, put themselves under 
the tuition of Mr. Johnson, at Guilford. 

This occasioned a general meeting of the 
trustees. The majority of that board, together 
with Mr. Saltonstall, the governor of the colony, 
were for establishing the college in New Haven ; 
but, as the academical schism was so great, 
they thought it expedient to refer the matter to 
the general court (or meeting of the governor, 
council, and assembly), which was to be held at 
New Haven, in October, 1716. 

Accordingly, when the matter came to a hear- 
ing before the general court, it was found that a 
majority of both houses was for establishing the 
college in New Haven ; and during that very 
session an act of assembly was passed for that 
purpose. The trustees, who approved of this 
removal, proceeded unanimously to choose Mr. 



LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 13 

Johnson, who was no more than twenty years of 
age, to be one of the tutors ; and, with a view 
of reconciling the party at Weathersfield, they 
appointed Mr. Smith to be the other. A sub- 
scription was immediately set forward, to raise 
money for the purpose of erecting a college ; 
and an architect from Boston was procured to 
conduct the building. 

All this was very mortifying to the Weathers- 
field party. However, Mr. Johnson was com- 
missioned by the trustees to wait on Mr. Smith, 
and to prevail with him, if possible, to come 
over to the established college, and bring his 
scholars with him. But Smith proved to be in- 
exorable, as were all the party ; being resolved 
to continue and support their schism at all ha- 
zards. They occasioned, for some time, no 
small disturbance in the colony. The students 
along the sea coast, however, came together at 
New Haven, to the number of near twenty ; and 
Mr. Johnson began his course of instruction 
there, assisted by Mr. Noyes, the minister of 
the town. 

Thus both parties were resolved firmly to 
maintain their ground. The party at Weathers- 
field was obstinate, and went on in all the forms 
of a regular college. At length they held a 
public commencement, and gave degrees, Sep- 



14 LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 

tember 12, 1717, (which was the same day on 
which the college held its first commencement 
in New Haven) in direct opposition to the act of 
the whole legislature of the colony. At the 
commencement in New Haven, Mr. Johnson 
with some others of his class, received the degree 
of Master of Arts ; and the trustees chose his 
dear friend, Mr. Brown, to be joined with him 
in taking charge of the college. 

These two amiable and worthy young gentle- 
men could hardly wish to be more agreeably 
situated. Happy in each other, having the same 
turn of mind, the same disposition of heart, the 
same thirst for knowledge, with the inestimable 
treasures of the new library now in their hands, 
they united their endeavours to enlarge the 
minds, and improve the taste, of their pupils, by 
the helps of those lights which had but lately 
appeared above their horizon. They introduced 
the study of Mr. Locke and Sir Isaac Newton 
as fast as they could, and, in order to understand 
the latter, the study of mathematics. Till now 
the Ptolemaic system of the world was as 
strongly believed as the Holy Scriptures ; but 
they were soon able to overthrow it, and to 
establish on its ruins the doctrine of Copernicus. 
Some opposition would probably have been 
made to these innovations ; but it was a favour- 



LIFE OF DR. JOHlSrsOK. 15 

able circumstance that the disputes concerning 
the college engrossed the public attention. 

Mr. Johnson had a strong desire of entering 
into the depths of Sir Isaac Newton's philo- 
sophy, but was not furnished with a sufficient 
degree of matiiematical knowledge, to the study 
of which branch of learning he had unhappily 
been averse. Yet finding it necessary to so 
favourite and important a design, he resolved to 
endeavour to conquer that aversion. This he 
effected by a diligent and resolute application ; 
and in the course of his studying them, the ma- 
thematics, which before had been his aversion, 
afforded him a pleasure that was new and ex- 
quisite. 

The college at New Haven gained strengh 
and reputation daily, and the building went on 
vigorously; so that by the latter end of the year 
1718 several apartments were furnished; and 
Mr. Johnson was the first that lodged and set 
up house-keeping in the college. Mr. Brown 
soon after followed his example. 

The government had hitherto connived at the 
Weathersfield faction, (for so it now deserved to 
be called) hoping it would die away of itself; 
but at length the assembly thought proper to 
pass an act, enjoining all the scholars to repair 
to the established college. The delinquents 



16 LIFE OF DR. JOriNSOK. 

made an appearance of submission, coming all 
in a body ; but it was soon discovered that they 
had no good intention. They pretended to be 
dissatisfied with every thing, and made all the 
mischief they could ; and after about six weeks 
they went back to Weathersfield. At the next 
general assembly the difference was compro- 
mised by this agreement: — That, in case the 
scholars would return to their duty, and abide 
at New Haven, the degrees that had been given 
at "Weathersfield should be confirmed, and a 
state-house should be built at Hartford, at the 
public expense. Upon this the faction expired, 
and the scholars came and lived at New Haven ; 
but they proved to be a very vicious and turbu- 
lent set of fellows,'' as might naturally be ex- 
pected from the part they had acted in opposi- 
tion to the government. 

The college had hitherto been only under the 
management of tutors, without a resident rect;or, 
or president. Mr. Andrew, the minister at Mil- 
ford, was the rector at that time, and took all 
the care of it that he could at the distance of 
ten miles; and he presided at the commence- 
ments. But now a resident rector was thought 
necessary ; and he not inclining to remove from 
Milford, at his advanced time of life, the trus- 
tees chose Mr. Timothy Cutler, who had been 



LIFE OF DR. JOHNSOTV-. 17 

ten years the minister at Stratford, and was the 
most celebrated preacher in the colony, to 
succeed to the rector's chair, and to take the 
college under his immediate inspection. This 
gentleman was universally allowed to be well 
qualified for the station, being a man of genius 
and application, of integrity and resolution. With 
him the tutors were very happy, and the college 
prospered under his administration. After his 
coming to reside at New Haven, Mr. Johnson 
continued there no longer than a year. 

He had always intended, with the concurrence 
and approbation of his friends, to become a 
preacher of the gospel ; and, therefore, at the 
earnest solicitations of the people at West Haven, 
but four miles distant from the college, he con- 
sented to fix himself there in that station, and 
was set apart to the ministry, March 20, 1720, in 
the twenty-fourth year of his age. He had met 
with much better offers in some respects, but he 
was not governed by mercenary motives. His 
grand point in view was to improve his own 
mind in knowledge, in order to be more useful 
to mankind ; and, therefore, for the sake of being 
so near the college and its library, and his 
friends Mr. Cutler and Mr. Brown, he gave 
this place the preference, although it had but 



18 LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 

little to recommend it ; and he was extremely 
happy in this situation. 

Mr. Johnson was always of a serious and de- 
vout turn of mind, but averse to every appear- 
ance of enthusiasm ; and he never could be 
thoroughly reconciled to the practice of public 
extempore praying and preaching, which he 
looked upon as the great engines of enthusiasm. 
When at college he had conceived an aversion 
to extempore prayers, by observing the use that 
was made of them there, and the tendency of 
this practice to promote self-conceit and spiritual 
pride. The scholars, in his time, frequently 
held private meetings for prayer ; and those of 
them that had acquired something of a talent at 
extempore praying could not forbear appearing 
vain of it : one, in particular, who was allowed 
to excel in that way, had the vanity frequently 
to boast of his gifts. On the other hand, some 
modest young gentlemen, of good sense and fair 
character, who wanted the assurance to pray 
in this manner, were discountenanced and des- 
pised. Mr. Johnson also could not help fre- 
quently observing many familiar, impertinent, 
and indecent, and sometimes almost blasphemous 
expressions, that were uttered on these occa- 
sions, which were shocking to him, and gave him 
an early dislike to extempore praying. From 



LTFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 19 

such observations he could not avoid making the 
conclusion, that it would be much better to have 
our prayers pre-composed, w^ith due care and 
attention. 

In 1715 he happened to meet v\^ith Archbishop 
King's discourse Of the Inventions of Men in the 
Worship of God, which confirmed him in his 
opinion. That excellent writer proved, with 
an evidence that Mr. Johnson thought but little 
short of demonstration, that public worship car- 
ried on in the extempore way, was wrong and 
unscriptural : and that pre-conceived, well-com- 
posed forms of prayer were infinitely preferable. 
They show a much greater reverence to thQ 
Divine Majesty ; and in the use of them there is 
no occasion to rack our invention in finding what 
to say, or to exercise our minds in ascertaining 
the meaning and propriety of what is said, as 
is necessarily the case in extempore prayers. 
When a form of prayer is used, we have nothing 
else to do than to offer up our hearts with our 
words, which, indeed, is the only proper busi- 
ness of prayer. He had been educated under 
strong prejudices against the Church of Eng- 
land, of which he knew but very little ; but the 
next year, (1716) the Book of Common Prayer 
was, for the first time, put into his hands, by 
one Mr. Smithson a pious member of the 

c 2 



20 Lll'f: OF DR. JOHXSOX. 

church, who had lately settled in Guilford. 
On perusing the Liturgy, he found that it chiefly 
consisted of a very judicious collection of sen- 
timents and expressions out of the Holy Scrip- 
tures ; and these he had always reverenced and 
loved. This inspection, together with Dr. King's 
book before-mentioned, caused all his prejudices 
against the Liturgy of the Church of England 
entirely to vanish. 

Mr. Johnson had, likewise, been always, much 
embarrassed with the rigid Calvinistical doc- 
trines in which he had been from his infancy in- 
structed. He thought himself bound to believe 
them, because every body else did, and because 
some sounds in scripture seemed to favour them: 
but then as many passages in scripture appeared, 
at the same time to be utterly inconsistent with 
them, he never could be perfectly reconciled to 
these opinions. When the library came over, 
and after he and his associates had read and 
considered the writings of some of the most ce- 
lebrated divines of the Church of England, and 
conversed together freely on these subjects, they 
had the unspeakable satisfaction of being able to 
remove all their doubts and objections, and of 
obtaining rest to their minds, which had been 
long agitated and wearied with the perplexities 
that attended their inquiries. However, the 



LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 21 

times were such, that they found it necessary to 
be very cautious in these matters, and to keep 
their thoughts much to themselves. 

Mr. Johnson had also an early dislike to the 
independent or congregational form of church 
government, in which the people have so much 
influence. This, as well as extempore prayer, 
he plainly perceived to be productive of con- 
ceitedness and self-sufficiency, and, by natural 
consequence, of censoriousness and uncharitable- 
ness. The discipline was often applied to the 
mere frailties of nature, or prostituted to the 
purposes of private revenge, and issued com- 
monly in great animosities, and sometimes in 
the most virulent separations and schisms. He 
was of opinion, that such a popular form of eccle- 
siastical discipline could not long subsist in such 
a manner as to answer the main ends of govern- 
ment ; but must, from the very nature of it, 
soon crumble to pieces, especially in a country 
where every individual seemed to think his own 
judgment infallible. Observations of this kind 
prepared him, when he came to read and to 
undei'stand the nature of Episcopal govern- 
ment, to see its reasonableness and the great 
advantages that attend it. 

Such was the state of Mr. Johnson's mind 
when he settled at West Haven. It maj^ there- 



22 LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 

fore, be well supposed, that it would then have 
been much more agreeable to him to have been 
ordained in the episcopal than in the congrega- 
tional way ; and this, he informs us, was really 
the case. But although he thought it eligible in 
most circumstances, yet he did not think it ne- 
cessary, in point of duty, as he was then situ- 
ated, to conform to the church. Accordingly 
he made himself easy, and went on in the pro- 
secution of his studies, and in the discharge of 
parochial duties, not appearing to vary from the 
customs of his country. 

Notwithstanding, with regard to his public 
performances his method was peculiar. As to 
his prayers, he commonly made use of forms, 
which he provided for himself in the best manner 
he could, and chiefly out of the Liturgy of the 
Church of England. And as to sermons, his 
practice was to write about one a month, taking- 
time to render the composition as perfect as pos- 
sible ; while he contented himself at other times 
with carefully reading the sermons of Dr. Barrow 
and some other celebrated preachers, minuting 
down only the heads of their discourses, and 
expressing the sense of his author in language of 
his own, as he was able to command it at the time 
of speaking. In this way while he greatly im- 
proved his mind, he acquired a facility of expres- 



LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 23 

sing himself on any subject, Hi^ composing no 
more than one sermon a month was by no means 
the effect of indolence, or an aversion to business, 
but merely a regular plan that he had formed 
for rendering himself as useful as possible. The 
attainments he had hitherto made in literature 
he now considered in the light of a foundation 
only, on which he conceived it was his duty 
to raise the highest improvements he was able 
to make. Accordingly he pursued his studies 
with intense application and ardour of mind ; not 
neglecting the classics, mathematics, physics 
and metaphysics, yet devoting himself chiefly 
to divinity, ethics, and history both sacred and 
profane. 

In the course of his inquiries, the doctrines 
and facts of the primitive church, among other 
things came under his examination. With re- 
gard to this subject he consulted freely with his 
friends above mentioned, who often met toge- 
ther at the college, or at one another's places of 
abode. The result of these conversations and 
inquiries was, that they could see but little re- 
semblance of the primitive church in the disci- 
pline and worship that were established among 
them ; and that the Church of England appeared 
to them in its general constitution, to come the 
nearest to the purity and perfection of the first 
ages of Christianity of any church upon earth. 



24 LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON^. 

But those conferences, which had hitherto 
been so agreeable, began now to be productive 
of uneasiness and anxiety. These gentlemen 
became unhappy, on finding themselves in a 
state so very different, in many respects, and 
particularly with regard to ecclesiastical govern- 
ment, from that of the primitive church. How 
to conduct themselves in this case they could 
hardly determine. They all loved their country, 
and were greatly respected by it ; being esteem- 
ed in point both of moral character and literary 
accomplishments, the most considerable persons 
of their years belonging to the colony. It there- 
fore pained them to think of forming conclusions 
which they knew would be distressing to their 
friends, and offensive to the country in general. 

On considering these things, they resolved to 
set themselves down to re-examine the subject, 
being desirous of continuing in their present 
way, if it could be done with a quiet conscience. 
They formed a resolution, however, to act ho- 
nestly and impartially, and to read the best 
books on both sides of the question. Accord- 
ingly they carefully compared together what was 
offered by Hoadly and Calamy in their long 
controversy on the subject : they put into the 
opposite scales Sir Peter King's Inquiry and 
Slater's Original Draught : they then examined 



LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 25 

Potter on Church Government, to which no an- 
swer has been attempted : and Mr. Johnson 
read several of the earliest and best fathers, in 
their original languages. The effect was, that 
from the facts in scripture, compared with those 
of the primitive church, it appeared plain to 
them that the episcopal government was univer- 
sally established by the Apostles wherever they 
propagated Christianity ; that through the first 
order of the ministry, called Bishops, the power 
of the priesthood was to be conveyed from the 
great head of the church; and, although Presby- 
ters preached and administered the sacraments, 
yet that tio act of ordination and government, for 
several ages, was ever allowed to be lawful, with- 
out a Bishop at the head of the Presbytery. All 
this appeared as evident, from the universal 
testimony of the church, as the true canon of 
scripture itself. It was therefore impossible for 
them after this inquiry, not to suspect, not only 
the regularity, but even the lawfulness and va- 
lidity of their own ordination. 

At this period the Church of England had 
scarcely any existence in Connecticut. There 
were, indeed, about thirty families at Stratford, 
chiefly from England, who professed themselves 
members of it, and who had applied to the Society* 

* For the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. 



26 LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 

for a minister; and that venerable body, in 
consequence of this application, ordered Mr. 
Pigot, whom they had taken into their ser- 
vice, to reside at Stratford for a few months. 
While he was there, Mr. Johnson waited on 
him in June 1722, and in the course of con- 
versation, invited him to make a visit to the 
college ; to which he consented, and appointed 
the day. Mr. Johnson gave notice of this to 
his friends, and they agreed to meet him there 
on that occasion. On the day appointed they 
all met at the college ; and these gentlemen, 
in their conversation with Mr. Pigot, did no 
more than express their charity and veneration 
for the Church of England ; but this was so un- 
expected, and so agreeable to Mr. Pigot, that 
he could not forbear giving some hints of it 
among his people at Stratford. 

By this time the frequent meetings, and the 
great intimacy of these gentlemen, began to be 
noticed, and became the subject of speculation. 
Some suspected that they were about to aposta- 
tize into Arminianism, which was looked upon 
as one of the vilest heresies ; and others went 
so far as not only to utter their own suspicions, 
but to raise and propagate several false reports 
concerning the principles of these gentlemen. 
In short, by the commencement following, in the 



LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 27 

month of September, the whole country was in 
an alarm, and many people came to New Haven, 
expecting some strange occurrences. 

The Trustees of the college, who highly 
esteemed all the gentlemen, did not doubt but 
they would be able to clear themselves of every 
unfavourable suspicion. Accordingly, the day 
after the commencement, they sent for them, 
with no other expectation, and with a view of 
removing the dark apprehensions of the people. 
They were all requested to meet the Trustees 
in the college library ; upon which Mr. Cutler, 
Mr. Hart, Mr. Eliot, Mr. Whittelsey, Mr. 
Wetmore, Mr. Johnson, and Mr. Brown, made 
their appearalice. The examination was formal ; 
and they were desired from the youngest to 
the eldest, to declare the true state of the case 
about which they were questioned. The de- 
claration of some of them was, that they doubted 
the validity of Presbyterian ordination ; and of 
the others, that they were fully persuaded of the 
invalidity of it. The trustees were struck with 
astonishment, and expressed the utmost grief and 
concern. They desired that the declaration might 
be given them in writing ; which was accordingly 
done. In return, the trustees sent them a paper, 
in which they entreated them to consider the 
matter again with greater attention, and, if 



28 



possible, to get over their scruples, or at worst, 
to desist. This was in September 1722, and 
the General Assembly was to sit in the October 
following. 

In this interim. Governor Sal tons tall, who had 
an esteem and affection for these gentlemen, 
and was desirous of reclaiming them from their 
errors, proposed that they and the trustees 
should meet together, and argue the points in a 
friendly manner in his presence. They accord- 
ingly met and disputed ; and he acted the part 
of a moderator with great candour and polite- 
ness. 

The debate for a considerable time, was ma- 
naged with decency by both parties ; but it soon 
appeared, that they did not come together under 
equal advantages. The subject was in a great 
measure new to the trustees, who had never 
much considered, or studied the points in con- 
troversy ; but, on the other side, the advocates 
for the church had weighed and examined them 
with the utmost care, and were at no loss for 
answers to every objection. The principal argu- 
ment that was advanced by the former, was taken 
from the promiscuous use of the words Bishop 
and Presbyter, in the New Testament. But 
the latter, in their reply, took notice, that men 
might wrangle for ever about the meaning of 



ltff: of dr. johxsoa^. 29 

words, and therefore they urged that, in the 
case before them, the surest and safest way was 
to have recourse to facts. Now the facts to 
which they appealed were the evident superin- 
tendency of Timothy over the clergy, as well 
as laity, at Ephesus — of Titus, in Crete — of the 
Angels, in the seven churches of Asia, &c. 
That these facts were rightly stated, was evident, 
as they contended, from the testimony of the 
very next writers after the Apostles, and of 
succeeding writers for several ages, as well as 
from the authentic history of those times, with- 
out exception. 

Mr. Johnson ran the parallel, as to matter of 
evidence, between the fact of Episcopacy, and 
the facts of infant baptism and the first day sab- 
bath, as the matter appeared from the light of 
history. He observed to his opponents, that he 
conceived they were right in their reasonings 
concerning the two latter points ; but that ex- 
actly the same reasoning would conclude much 
more forcibly in favour of the former ; and, there- 
fore, if they would be consistent, that they^ must 
either i^eceive E'piscopacy, or reject infant bd^ism 
and the first day sabbath. He went on, and de- 
clared his full conviction and belief, from everV 
kind of information he could gain, that there 
never was a time, till latterly, in which, if he had 



30 LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 

* 

acted in opposition to Episcopacy, as Aerius did, 
he would not have been excommunicated for a 
heretic and schismatic, as Aerius was. He con- 
cluded with saying, that he had such a reverence 
for the sense and practice of the ancient church, 
that he could find no way of making himself easy 
while he neglected to follow it. This defence 
of Episcopacy by Mr. Johnson, exciting some 
irritating remarks from the other party. Gover- 
nor Saltonstall put an end to the conference. 

Three of the gentlemen who appeared on the 
side of the Church, although they could repel 
the arguments of their opponents, yet were not 
able to withstand the alternate reproaches and 
entreaties of their friends. At length they were 
so lucky as to discover some way of getting over 
their scruples, and they continued in their sta- 
tions — living to a good old age, eminent in their 
profession, and much respected by their country. 
And it has often been observed of them, to their 
honour, that, amidst all the controversies in 
which the church was engaged during their 
lives, they were never known to act, or say, or 
insinuate, any thing to her disadvantage. 

As to Messrs. Cutler and Brown, (the former 
president of the college, and the latter a tutor 
in it,) and Mr. Johnson, they were determined 
to go forward. They had taken care before- 



LIFE OF DR. JOHNSOK. 31 

hand, gradually to prepare their friends for 
the event, and had reconciled them to it, in 
a great measure, by means of the books which 
they had put into their hands, and persuaded 
them to read. Accordingly, after formally re- 
signing their respective places, in a few days 
they set out for Boston, proposing to embark 
from thence to England, to obtain Holy Orders 
in the church. Mr. Wetmore followed them 
in a few months. 

When Mr. Johnson took leave of his people, 
whom he greatly loved, he affectionately told 
them, that if they could see reason to conform 
to the Church of England, he would never leave 
them ; but after obtaining such ordination as he 
thought to be necessary, that he would return to 
them again in the character of their Minister. 
But, with such an offer they were unable to com- 
ply, notwithstanding their esteem for him. He 
expostulated with them, and urged them seri- 
ously to consider the matter. Among other 
things he said, that they had hitherto professed 
to admire his preaching, and especially his 
prayers. And, indeed, his prayers were so much 
admired by people in general, that it was com- 
mon for persons belonging to the neighbouring 
parishes to come to West Haven, on purpose to 
hear them. Now he told them that his instruc- 



;32 LIFE OF DR. JOHNSOX. 

tions and prayers had all along been taken from 
the Church of England ; and that they ought to 
be esteemed as much, after this circumstance was 
known, as they had been before. This declara- 
tion greatly surprised them : however, no more 
than four or five of them could then be recon- 
ciled to receive him in the orders of the Church. 

After a few days^ therefore, he took his final 
leave of them, and proceeded on his journey to 
Boston, in company with Messrs. Cutler and 
Brown. At Rhode Island and Boston, they were 
treated with all possible respect by the members 
of the church. At Boston they were about to 
erect a new church, and this was offered to 
Mr. Cutler. The gentlemen there also engaged 
a passage for the three associates in a ship that 
was just ready to sail ; and, at their own expense, 
furnished them with every thing that might be 
needful or useful to them during the voyage. 
After spending about a week in Boston, they 
embarked on the 5th of November. 

They arrived in the Downs, after a rough and 
stormy passage, and landed at Ramsgate on the 
15th of December; whence they went the same 
day to Canterbury. There they were obliged to 
wait three days for the stage coach ; and an op- 
portunity was thus oiforded them of seeing the 
chief curiosities of that ancient and venerable 



LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON^. 33 

city. The day after their arrival they attended 
divine service at the cathedral church. Here 
every thing was new and surprising to them. 
The magnificence of the building, the solemnity 
of the service, and the music that attended it, 
all conspired to fill them with admiration and 
exquisite pleasure. 

They had no introductory letters to any per- 
sons in Canterbury ; however, on their request 
they were introduced to the Dean, who was the 
learned and excellent Dr. Stanhope. When 
they came to the Deanry, they sent in word, by 
the servant, that they were gentlemen from 
America, come over for Holy Orders, who were 
desirous of paying their respects to the Dean. 
The Dean himself came immediately to the door,^ 
took them by the hand, and, to their surprise, 
said, ''Come in gentlemen; you are very wel- 
come. I know you well ; for we have just 
been reading your declaration for the church." 
It seems, the declaration, with their names an- 
nexed to it, had got into the London papers ; 
and the Dean, with a number of Prebendaries 
who dined with him, were at that instant read= 
ing it. The company treated them with great 
friendship and respect, and desired to hear from 
them their whole story. This was circumstanti- 

D 



34 LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 

ally told, and the evening was spent agreeably 
on both sides. 

The next day the Dean, who was then to set 
out for London, took his leave of them for the 
present, giving them his advice and direction ; 
and afterwards he did them many kind offices, 
as he had opportunity. While they continued 
in Canterbury, they were happy in the notice 
and friendship of the Sub-Dean, Mr. Gostlin, and 
of the Prebendaries, especially Dr. Grandorge, 
who was Chaplain to the Earl of Thanet. This 
gentleman, some months afterwards, meeting 
them in London, took them to his lodgings, and 
counted out to each of them ten guineas, which 
was a present from the Earl, his patron, for the 
purchase of books ; and afterwards he procured 
from his Lordship forty pounds more for Mr. 
Cutler's church. 

On coming to London they were received with 
all possible kindness by Dr. Robinson the 
Bishop of London, and by the Society for the 
Propagation of the Gospel ; and it was readily 
agreed, that Mr. Cutler should be sent to the 
new church in Boston ; Mr. Brown to Bristol, 
in New England, a mission that was vacant ; and 
Mr. Johnson to Stratford ; and that Mr. Pigot 
should be fixed at Providence. The two Arch-» 
bishops. Dr. Wake and Sir William Dawes, the 



LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 35 

latter especially, received them with parental 
affection. Many gentlemen were fond of com- 
mencing an acquaintance with them, particularly 
Dr. King, Master of the Charter House; Dr. 
Astry, the Treasurer of St. Paul's ; Dr. Berriman, 
then Chaplain to the Bishop of London ; and the 
chaplain's brother, Mr. John Berriman, a most 
worthy clergyman. With them Mr. Johnson 
afterwards maintained a long friendly cor- 
respondence by letters, but more especially 
with Dr. Astry and Mr. Berriman. 

While the three candidates were preparing for 
ordination, and going on with great dispatch, 
Mr. Cutler was taken ill of the small-pox, and 
had it severely ; but by God's goodness he reco- 
vered. This caused their ordination to be de- 
ferred till the latter end of March ; when, by 
letters dimissory from the Bishop of London, 
Dr. Robinson, near the point of death, to Dr. 
Green, then Bishop of Norwich, and Rector of 
St. Martin's, they were ordained by the latter, 
first Deacons, and then Priests, in St. Martin's 
church. They now proposed shortly to make a 
visit to Oxford. But within a week Mr. Brown 
was seized with the small-pox, which proved 
fatal to him ! He expired on Easter Eve — to 
the great loss of the church, and the inexpres- 
sible grief of his two friends, especially of Mr, 

D 2 



36 LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON". 

Johnson. He was universally allowed by all 
competent judges, to be one of the most pro- 
mising young men that his country had ever 
produced. 

In the beginning of May, Mr. Cutler and Mr. 
Johnson, in prosecution of their former inten- 
tions, went to Oxford. On their arrival, they 
found that their friend Dr. Astry, had procured 
from the university the degree of Doctor in 
Divinity for Mr. Cutler, and that of Master of 
Arts for Mr. Johnson, and that the diplomas 
were prepared: these were respectfully pre- 
sented to them by Dr. Shippen, the Vice- Chan- 
cellor. The kindness and politeness with which 
they were treated by the heads and fellows of 
the houses in general, exceeded their highest 
expectations. These gentlemen all seemed to 
study what could be done to increase the happi- 
ness of these American visitants. On this occa- 
sion. Dr. Delaune, President of St. John's 
College, and Dr. John Burton, Fellow of Corpus 
Christi, with whom Mr. Johnson afterwards 
held a correspondence, particularly distinguish- 
ed themselves by their acts of friendship. 

After spending a most delightful fortnight at 
Oxford, Dr. Cutler and Mr. Johnson returned 
to London ; and, in the beginning of June, they 
made a visit to the university of Cambridge, 



•LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 37 

where Dr. Snape was Vice-Chancellor, and 
where they were admitted to the same degrees, 
and treated in the same respectful manner as at 
Oxford. Mr. Wetmore, who had lately arrived 
in England, accompanied them in this tour. 
After spending a fortnight at this university, they 
came back to the metropolis. The remainder of 
the time, before their embarkation for America, 
was employed in conversing with their friends, 
in seeing the curiosities in and about London, 
and in making short excursions to Windsor, 
Hampton Court, Greenwich, &c. &c. 

They received their letters of licence from 
Bishop Gibson, who, by this time, had been 
translated from Lincoln to London. With this 
learned and excellent prelate they conversed 
frequently, on the state of the church in the 
colonies. They urged the necessity, as they had 
repeatedly done with their friends in London, 
and at both the universities, of sending Bishops 
to America ; representing it as, in their humble 
opinion, a dishonour to the Christian and Episco- 
pal nation of England, that America, which had 
been planted for one hundred years, and con- 
tained a large number of Episcopal congrega- 
tions, should still be without some of the most 
important offices of the church, for want of an 
Episcopate. His Lordship was of the same 



38 LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 

opinion with them ; and, the next year, on occa- 
sion of the Jacobites sending two Bishops over 
to the colonies, he entered warmly into the affair; 
but he could not prevail with the ministry to 
give his proposal the attention it deserved* He 
continued to be zealous for such an establishment 
as long as he lived ; and condescended, in many 
kind letters, to correspond with Mr. Johnson, 
on that and other subjects relating to the church. 

Taking leave of their friends in London, Dr. 
Cutler and Mr. Johnson embarked for America 
on the 26th of July ; and after a pleasant pas- 
sage, landed at Piscataqua ; whence they pro- 
ceeded directly to Boston. On the 4th of 
November, 1723, Mr. Johnson arrived at his 
mission in Stratford, and was joyfully received 
by his little flock. Mr. Pigot then hastened to 
his charge at Providence. 

At that time there were about thirty Episcopal 
families at Stratford, but all of them poor ; and 
about forty more in the neighbouring towns of 
Fairfield, Norwalk, Newtown, Ripton,and West 
Haven : at each of which places Mr. Johnson 
agreed to officiate once every three months, but 
chiefly on week days. He was then the only 
Episcopal clergyman in the colony, and found 
himself on all sides surrounded by bitter ad- 
versaries. He was generally considered and 



LIFE OF Dll. JOHNSON. 39 

treated as a schismatic and apostate ; and the 
people seemed to be resolved, by thwarting him, 
and rendering his situation uneasy, to drive 
him, if possible, from the country. However, 
he had prepared himself for such treatment, and 
showed a steadiness and firmness of mind equal 
to the occasion. He still preserved his wonted 
cheerfulness and benevolence of temper, and 
conversed with those who had been formerly his 
friends, when they gave him an opportunity, 
with his usual frankness. At first they were sus- 
picious, and shy of him ; but, at length, won by 
his courteous, prudent, and obliging behaviour, 
many of them returned to their former good 
humour, and others abated much of their se- 
verity. 

Some, who did not personally know him, took 
him to be a man of deep design and much 
worldly policy. They were unable to conceive 
it possible, that he could have conformed to the 
church from any other motive than merely to 
advance his temporal interest. But they who 
were best acquainted with him knew him to 
be so far from being governed by mercenary 
views in any thing, that he was rather apt to be 
negligent of his worldly afiairs, even to a fault. 
Of this he was sensible himself; and therefore, 
as he found it impossible to live among his poor 



40 LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 

people with any tolerable decency, without 
keeping house, he thought it highly expedient 
to marry some person in whose experienced 
economy he could safely confide. 

Exactly such a person, and one possessed of 
many other excellent qualities, he had the good 
fortune to find in Mrs. Charity Nicoll, to whom 
he was married September 26, 1725, being then 
in the 29th year of his age. She was a daughter 
of Colonel Richard Floyd, and the widow of 
Benjamin Nicoll, Esquire, of Long Island ; by 
whom she had two sons, William and Benjamin, 
and one daughter. After this marriage, Mr. 
Johnson undertook to instruct her sons in the 
languages, and to superintend their education ; 
which office he performed with the utmost 
vigilance, care, and affection. They were both 
sent to the college at New Haven in 1730, and 
graduated at the common period. 

About the year 1726, Mr. Johnson lost his 
father, aged fifty-seven years. He was a man 
of integrity and good understanding. He was 
fond of reading ; and at last was so well recon- 
ciled to the church, that nothing but want of 
opportunity prevented his becoming one of its 
communicants. Mrs. Johnson, his wife, died 
a year before him. 

At this time Mr. Burnet, a son of the famous 



LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 41 

Bishop of Salisbury, was the Governor of New- 
York. He was a lover of books, and a consider- 
able scholar ; and never was happier than when 
in the company of men who were able to eon- 
verse on the various subjects of literature. With 
him Mr. Johnson, who frequently made visits 
to New York, was a favourite : but this con- 
nection at length brought the latter into much 
perplexity of mind. The Governor, whose ec- 
centrical genius was not to be confined within 
the vulgar limits of orthodoxy, had greedily im- 
bibed, and made himself master of, the princi- 
ples of Dr. Clarke, relating to the Holy Trinity, 
and of Bishop Hoadly, relating to ecclesiastical 
authority ; and he was zealous and alert in his 
attempts to proselyte his friends to his own 
way of thinking. He flattered [himself with 
the expectation of succeeding with Mr. Johnson 
in particular ; as he knew him to be no dogma- 
tist, but inquisitive, and from an impartial love 
of truth, willing to read and examine any thing 
that was offered him. Accordingly he assailed 
him with all his strength and dexterity, and fur- 
nished him with the best books that had been 
written by Clarke, Whiston, Hoadly, Jackson, 
Sykes, and others on that side of the question, 
both in the Trinitarian and Bangorian contro- 
versy. Mr. Johnson, who read these authors 



42 LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 

willingly, could not but admire them as writers, 
but was much shocked with observing their 
artifices and subtilties. Yet had it not been 
for his habitual principle and resolution to act 
impartially, and to examine things with the 
greatest care and exactness on both sides, he 
would have been in no small danger (and in- 
deed for some time he actually was in danger) 
of being borne down by the weight of their rea- 
sonings, or, at least, deluded by the plausible 
appearance of their arguments. 

In order to do justice to the cause of truth, 
in these cases of no small importance, Mr. John- 
son, having read the before-mentioned authors, 
with his usual impartiality set himself down to 
examine, with great care and exactness, what 
had been offered on the other side, in the Trini- 
tarian controversy, by Bishop Bull, Bishop 
Pearson, Dr. Waterland, and others ; and in the 
Bangorian controversy, by Dr. Rogers, Bishop 
Sherlock, Bishop Hare, Bishop Potter, Dr: 
Snape, and Mr, Law. He was sensible that 
this examination required the prudent exertion 
of all his abilities, which he bestowed upon it 
very seriously and conscientiously. 

In the process of his inquiries under the first 
head, he was convinced, more than he ever had 
been, that the only way of coming at the truth. 



LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 43 

was to lay aside all preconceived schemes, and 
every hypothesis for accounting philosophically 
for the modus of the Trinity, which is beyond 
the reach of our faculties ; and to have recourse 
to the Scriptures themselves in the original lan- 
guages, in order to find what they really teach ; 
and then to consider the sublimer doctrines of 
revealed religion, not as subjects of philoso- 
phical disquisition, but as truths or facts which 
the Scriptures assert. He therefore went on, 
in this manner, to inform himself whether the 
sacred writings do or do not, in fact, teach 
the doctrine of a co-essential Trinity in the one 
essence of the Deity ; and whether they do or 
do not assert, that Christ and the Holy Ghost 
are God, in the same sense of the word as when 
it is applied to the Father. He then proceeded 
to inquire into the sense of the Primitive Church, 
with regard to these points, reading the original 
writers that are still extant. Consulting the 
fathers only as witnesses of the fact, he was 
anxious to discover, with certainty, not so much 
the opinion of individuals, as whether or not 
the doctrine of the Trinity, or of the proper 
divinity of Christ and the Holy Ghost, was 
generally taught and believed in the Church, 
for several ages immediately succeeding that of 
the Apostles. The result of this laborious ex» 



44 LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 

amination was, a full conviction both of the 
truth and importance of the doctrine of the 
Trinity ; in the firm belief of which he after- 
wards continued to the last, without wavering. 

It was indeed no small instance of self-denial 
m a man of his turn of mind, to submit his un- 
derstanding to the obedience of faith. He was 
desirous of seeing to the bottom of things, and, 
consequently, disposed to reduce the doctrines 
of Revelation to the standard of his own reason. 
He was naturally disposed to invent hypotheses 
for explaining the manner of divine things, and 
the grounds on which they are thus represented 
to us in Scripture ; and to use the same liberty 
in speculating on the articles of faith as on the 
phenomena of nature. But at length by a serious 
and close application of thought, he was con- 
vinced of the folly of thus speculating on subjects 
which are beyond the reach of our faculties. 
Thus, for instance, it appeared to him, that it 
is really beyond our abilities to conceive how 
the Unity Man can consist of Spirit, Soul, and 
Body, as how the Unity God can consist of 
Father, Son, and Spirit. And that God and man 
should be so united as to constitute one person, 
actuated by the divinity, was, in his opinion, as 
clearly intelligible, as that the spirit of a man 
should be so united to his body, as to move the 



LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 45 

whole or any part of it, by the bare act of 
volition. 

Upon the whole, he came to the following 
conclusions, which were ever after his fixed 
principles : viz. ** That we must be content 
chiefly, if not only, both in nature and revela- 
tion, with the knowledge of facts, together with 
their designs and connections, without specu- 
lating much further: and, that one great end 
of all God's discoveries, both in nature and 
grace, is to mortify our pride and self-sufficiency 
— to make us duly sensible of our entire de- 
pendency — and chiefly to engage us to live by 
faith and not by sight , and in the practice of every 
grace and virtue, in which our true perfection 
and happiness altogether consist." 

His inquiry into the merits of the other, con- 
troversy was not attended with any great labour 
or difficulty. He was soon able to satisfy him- 
self that Christ and his Apostles did actually 
establish a certain form and order of government 
in the church, which, as to all its essential parts, 
was to continue " to the end of the world ;" and 
that it was not left to the discretion of any 
human authority to alter or reject it, as might 
best suit with worldly convenience. 

In the month of February, 1729, Dr. Berkeley, 
then Dean of Derry, in Ireland, arrived in America, 



46 LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 

and resided two years and a half in Rhode Island. 
That he was a man of a truly great genius, of 
profound erudition, of a fine taste, and unbound- 
ed benevolence, as well as of strict and ex- 
emplary piety, is known not only in America, 
but throughout Europe. As his coming to 
America had an important effect upon the re- 
ligion and learning of the country ; and as Dr. 
Johnson always considered the period in which 
Bishop Berkeley resided in this country as one 
of the most interesting periods of his life, it may 
not be amiss to give a more particular account 
of that extraordinary person, and of the business 
that brought him hither, than has probably been 
laid before the American reader in one view. 
This I shall now do by the assistance of Dr. 
Johnson's papers, and other information, com- 
pared with the life of Bishop Berkeley, in the 
Biographia Britannica ; that noble and lasting 
monument, erected in honour of the most emi- 
nent worthies of Great Britain and Ireland, from 
the earliest ages down to the present times; 
and of which it has been said*, in the words of 
Virgil : 

" Hie manus ob patriam pugnando vulnera passi ; 
Quique sacerdotes casti, dum vita manebat ; 

* By Gilbert West, Esq. 



LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 47 

Quique pii vates, et Phcebo digna locuti ; 
Inventas aut qui vitam excoluere per artes ; 
Quique sui memores alios fecere merendo !" 

Dr. Berkeley was the son of a worthy Clergy- 
man in Ireland, and was born in 1679. His pro- 
gress in grammar learning, at the school in 
Kilkenny, was so rapid, that at the age of fifteen 
years he was well fitted for the university, and 
was admitted a pensioner of Trinity College, 
Dublin. He took his degrees at the periods 
appointed by the statutes, and, at an early age, 
was elected a fellow of the college ; in which he 
resided afterwards for about twelve years, mak- 
ing a distinguished figure in many branches of 
learning, and giving many proofs of a strong 
original genius. 

In 1713, having been some years in holy 
orders, he went over to England, carrying with 
him a recommendation from Dr. Swift, the 
celebrated Dean of St. Patrick's, to the Earl of 
Peterborough, who soon appointed him his 
chaplain; in which character he attended his 
Lordship on his embassy to Sicily and the 
Italian States. He continued abroad four years 
in this station, and improved the opportunity in 
visiting every part of Italy and the adjacent 
islands. In his absence the university of Dublin 

t 



48 LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 

created him Doctor in Divinity, by diploma, in 
1717. After finishing this delightful tour, he 
returned to Trinity College, and prosecuted his 
studies with his accustomed vigour. 

While England was groaning under the dis- 
tress occasioned by the fatal South Sea project. 
Dr. Berkeley published An Essay towards pj^e- 
venting the Ruin of Great Britain, in 1721. This 
seasonable, judicious, and benevolent produc- 
tion, together with his known excellent and 
amiable character, induced Mrs. Hester Van- 
homrigh, the Vanessa of Swift, to appoint him 
one of her executors, and residuary legatee, 
although she had never seen him but once ; by 
which appointment and devise he obtained not 
less than four thousand pounds. Soon after, by 
the interest of the Duke of Grafton, the Deanry 
of Derry, worth eleven or twelve hundred 
pounds, per annum, was conferred upon him. 

About this time he published A Proposal for 
the better supplying of churches in the American 
plantations with clergymen, and for converting 
the savages to Christianity, by erecting a college 
in Bermudas. The first branch of this design 
appeared to him in the light of importance ; but 
his principal view, on which he most insisted in 
his Proposal, was to train up a competent num- 
ber of young Indians, in succession, to be em- 



LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 49 

ployed as missionaries among the various tribes 
of Indians bordering upon our settlements. It 
appeared to be a matter of very material conse- 
quence, that persons should be employed in this 
service who were acquainted with the languages 
necessary to be used ; and he had also a strong 
persuasion that such missionaries as he proposed 
would be much better received by the savages 
than those of European extraction. These Indian 
lads were to be procured from the different 
tribes, in the fairest manner, and to be fed, 
cloathed, and instructed at the expense of the 
institution. The expense of thus maintaining 
them was computed at about ten pounds sterling 
yearly for each. 

Why Bermudas was chosen for the place of 
the college will best appear from the Dean's own 
words. In speaking of the choice of a situation, 
he says, " It should be in a good air ; in a 
place where provisions are cheap and plenty ; 
where an intercourse might easily be kept up 
with all parts of America and the islands; in 
a place of security, not exposed to the insults 
of pirates, savages, or other enemies ; where 
there is no great trade, which might tempt the 
readers or fellows to become merchants, to the 
neglect of their proper business ; where there 
are neither riches nor luxury to divert or lessen 



50 LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 

their application, or to make them uneasy and 
dissatisfied with a homely, frugal subsistence ; 
lastly, where the inhabitants, if such a place 
may be found, are noted for innocence and 
simplicity of manners." All these advantages, 
he imagined, were to be found in the islands of 
Bermuda, in a more considerable degree than 
in any other place in the British American domi- 
nions. 

The scheme, for some time, met with all the 
encouragement that was due to so benevolent a 
proposal. The king granted a charter, appoint- 
ing Dr. Berkeley the first president of the in- 
tended college, who for the sake of this office, 
with a salary annexed to it of not more than one 
hundred pounds per annum, was desirous of 
exchanging, and actually signed the resignation 
of, his rich Deanry. Mr. Thompson, Mr. 
Rogers, and Mr. King, three worthy Clergy- 
men, Fellows of Trinity College, Dublin, who 
were in a fair way of preferment at home, agreed 
to attend him, and were named as Fellows in 
the charter*. 

* Dr. Swift, in a letter to Lord Carteret, gives the following 
humorous account of the Dean and his scheme : " He is," says 
he, " an ahsolute philosopher, with regard to money, titles, and 
power ; and for three years past hath been struck with a notion 
of founding an university at Bermudas, by a charter from the 



LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 51 

The monies arising from the sale of lands in 
St. Christopher's, that were ceded to the British 
crown by the treaty of Utrecht, amounted to 
eighty thousand pounds ; and Queen Anne de- 
signed that sum as a fund for the support of four 
American Bishops. But that design failing by 
her death. Dr. Berkeley, by the dint of appli- 
cation and address, notwithstanding Sir Robert 
Walpole's opposition, procured a parliamentary 
grant of twenty thousand pounds of that money, 
for the establishment of his college. 

On the first day of August, 1728, the Dean 
married a daughter of the Right Honourable 
John Forster, Esquire, the Speaker of the Irish 
House of Commons. This engagement, how- 
ever, was so far from retarding his design, that 
he actually sailed, in the execution of it, about 

crown. He hath seduced several of the hopefullest young 
clergymen, and others here, many of them well provided for, 
and all of them in the fairest way of preferment : but in England 
his conquests are greater ; and, I doubt not, will spread very 
far this winter. He showed me a little tract, which, he designs 
to publish ; and there your Excellency will see his whole 
scheme of a life academico-phiiosophical, at a college founded 
for Indian scholars and missionaries ; where he most ex- 
orbitantly proposeth a whole hundred pounds a year for him- 
self, forty pounds for a fellow, and ten pounds for a student. 
His heart will break if his Deanry be not taken from him, 
and left to your Excellency*s diposal." 

E 2 



52 LIFE OF DK. JOHNSON. 

the middle of September following, his lady and 
her sister accompanying him. He came imme- 
diately to Rhode Island, with a view of settling 
a correspondence there, for supplying his college 
with such provisions as might be wanted from 
the northern colonies. But soon after his arrival 
he was convinced that he had been greatly mis- 
informed with regard to the state of Bermudas, 
and that the establishment of a college there 
would not answer his purpose. He then wrote 
to his friends in England, requesting them to 
get the patent altered for some place on the 
American continent, which would, probably 
have been New York ; and to obtain the pay- 
ment of the sum that had been granted him. 

Accordingly, Bishop Gibson applied to Sir 
Robert Walpole, then at the head of the trea- 
sury, in his behalf; but the answer w^as un- 
favourable. With regard to the requests for the 
payment of the money. Sir Robert replied : " If 
you put the question to ibe" as a minister, I must 
and can assure you that the money shall most 
undoubtedly be paid, as soon as suits with 
public convenience ; but if you ask me as a 
friend, whether Dean Berkeley should continue 
in America, expecting the payment of twenty 
thousand pounds, I advise him, by all means, 
to return home to Europe, and to give up his 



LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 53 

present expectations." The Dean, being in- 
formed of this conversation by his good friend 
the Bishop, and fully convinced that his whole 
plan was defeated, resolved to return to England ; 
and accordingly he embarked at Boston, in 
September, 1731. Not long after the whole 
eighty thousand pounds above-mentioned was 
given to the Princess Anne, on her marriage 
with thePrince of Orange. 

In November, 1733, the Dean was informed, 
by a letter from the Duke of Newcastle, one of 
the secretaries of state, that it was the king's 
pleasure to promote him to the see of Cloyne. 
This promotion he neither sought nor desired ; 
and at the time of accepting it he determined 
never to consent to a translation. Thus, when 
the Bishoprick of Clogher was offered him in 
1746, the income of which was, at least, double 
to that of Cloyne, he made his excuse, and re- 
fused to accept the offer. He constantly resided 
in his diocese, from the time of his consecration 
(one winter excepted,) till the year 1752, in the 
faithful discharge of all Episcopal duties, and in 
studying to promote the spiritual and temporal 
happiness of his fellow creatures, by every me- 
thod within his power. 

In the year last mentioned he took a journey 
to Oxford, in order to superintend, for some 



64 LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 

time, at that university, the education of his 
son, who afterwards became a clergyman of 
distinction, being promoted to the rectory of 
Acton in Middlesex, to a Doctorate of Laws, 
and to a Prebend in the cathedral of Canterbury. 
On the 14th of January following, it being Sun- 
day, the good Bishop while sitting with his fa- 
mily at tea, in apparent health, and just after he 
had explained to them the 15th chapter of St. 
Paul's first Epistle to the Corinthians, instanta- 
neously expired in his chair, without the least 
struggle or groan, and even without the notice 
of the company that was present. He was 
buried at Christ Church, Oxford; where a 
handsome marble monument is^ erected to his 
memory, with the following inscription, drawn 
by the classical and elegant pen of Dr. Markham, 
Bishop of Chester*. 

Gravissimo Praesuli 

Georgio, Episcopo Clonensi : 

Viro, 

Seu Ingenii et Eruditionis, 

Seu Probitatis et Beneficentise, 

Laudem spectemus ; 

Inter summos omnium iEtatum 

Numerando. 

* Afterwards Archbishop of York. Ed^ 



LIFE OF DE. JOHNSON. 55 

Si Christianus fueris, 

Si amans Patriae, 

Utroque nomine gaudere potes 

Berkeleium vixisse. 

Natus Anno 1679. 

Obiit 

Annum agens Septuagesimum tertium. 

Hoc Monumentum 

Anna Conjux 

L. M. P. 

And on a square stone over his grave is this line : 

To Berkeley every virtue under heaven. 

Pope. 

Mr. Johnson was no stranger to Dr. Berkeley's 
character before he came to America, and had 
read his Principles of Human Knoiuledge with 
much pleasure. As soon, therefore, as he heard 
of his arrival at Rhode Island, he made it his busi- 
ness to wait upon him, to pay him the respect 
that was due to him, and to have an opportunity 
of conversing with so eminent a scholar. The 
Dean received him with kindness and affec- 
tion, and conversed with him, on all subjects, 
with the greatest condescension and freedom. 
From this time a correspondence by letters com- 
menced between them, which continued as long 



56 LIFE OF DR. JOHNSOIsr. 

as they both lived. " Mr. Johnson afterwards 
visited him repeatedly, being desirous of making 
the most of such an happy opportunity as the 
Dean's residence in America afforded, to im- 
prove himself in useful science. Many difficul- 
ties that had attended his theological inquiries 
were, by this means, removed ; and he became 
an entire convert to the Dean's philosophical 
system. It appeared to him to be the most 
effectual method for precluding scepticism, 
whatever use some writers may since have made 
of it ; and that it left no room, like other sys- 
tems, for endless doubts and uncertainties, in 
any matters of real importance. The denial of 
the existence of matter, at first seemed whimsi- 
cal and romantic ; but it was for want of under- 
standing the sense in which it was denied : for 
he found that it was only the idle, unintelligible, 
scholastic notion of matter, as essentially con- 
sisting of such a substratum as no human creature 
could conceive, the Dean meant to oppose ; 
substituting in the room of it a stated union and 
combination of sensible ideas^ excited from with- 
out by some intelligent being. This scheme, in 
his opinion, was attended with this vast advan- 
tage, that it not only exhibited new and incon- 
testible evidence of the existence of the Deity, 
but also tended to impress the mind with a 



LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 57 

much stronger sense of his perpetual presence 
and immediate agency in the production of 
events, and consequently of our dependence 
upon him, and our obligations to him, than any 
other system. On these accounts Mr. Johnson 
wished that Dr. Berkeley's writings might be 
fairly considered, and carefully studied ; and he 
did all in his power to introduce them to the 
notice of the literati. 

While the Dean resided at Rhode Island, he 
composed his Alciphron, or Minute Philosopher ; 
written by way of dialogue, in the manner of 
Plato. The design of it was to vindicate the 
Christian religion, in answer to the various ob- 
jections and cavils of atheists, libertines, enthu- 
siasts, scorners, critics, metaphysicians, fatalists, 
and sceptics. In the advertisement prefixed to 
these dialogues, the author affirms, that he was 
" well assured one of the most noted writers 
against Christianity had declared, he had found 
out a demonstration against the being of a God." 
Mr. Johnson, in one of his visits to the Dean, 
conversing with him on the subject of the work 
then in hand, was more particularly informed by 
him — that he himself (the Dean) had heard this 
strange declaration, while he was present in one 
of the deistical clubs, in the pretended charac- 
ter of a learner — that Collins was the man who 



58 LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 

made it—and that the demonstration was what 
he afterwards published, in an attempt to prove 
that every action is the effect of fate and neces- 
sity, in his book entitled, A Philosophical Inquiry 
concerning Human Libert^/. And, indeed, could 
the point be once established, that every thing 
is produced by fate and necessity, it would na- 
turally follow, that there is no God, or that he 
is a very useless and insignificant being, which 
amounts to the same thing. As this strange 
anecdote deserves to be more generally known, 
a place is given it in this memoir. 

When the Dean was about leaving America, 
Mr. Johnson made him his final visit. As he 
retained a strong affection for Yale College, the 
seminary in which he was educated, and with 
which he had been otherwise connected, he took 
the liberty, on this occasion, to recommend it to 
the Dean's notice ; hoping that he might think 
proper to send it some books, and not expect- 
ing, or aiming at any thing further. But within 
two years from that time. Dr. Berkeley, assisted 
by several gentlemen who had subscribed money 
for his intended college at Bermuda, sent over 
a valuable collection of books, as a present to 
Yale College. It amounted, including what he 
had given before, to near one thousand volumes, 
of which two hundred and sixty were in folio. 



LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 59 

and very large. The cost of this collection 
could have been little less than five hundred 
pounds sterling. At or about the same time he 
transmitted to Mr. Johnson a deed, in which he 
conveyed to that college his farm in Rhode 
Island, consisting of ninety-six acres. The an- 
nual interest of it was to be divided between 
three bachelors of arts, who, upon examination 
by the rector of the college, and a minister of 
the Church of England, should appear to be the 
best classical scholars ; provided they would re- 
side at college the three years between their 
bachelor's and master's degrees, in the prosecu- 
tion of their studies ; and the forfeitures, in case 
of non- residence, were to be given in premiums 
of books, to those that performed the best exer- 
cises. 

These were most valuable and important do- 
nations, judiciously adapted to the state of the 
college; yet, as they came from a wrong quar- 
ter, that is, from a clergyman of the Church of 
England, the trustees were almost afraid to ac- 
cept of them. However, they soon put on the 
appearance of much gratitude to their benefac- 
tor, who was their sincere friend, and had no 
other view than to promote the interest and re- 
putation of their college. 

One would imagine that, after this, the pa- 



60 LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 

trons of the college would, at least for some time, 
behave with decency, if not with respect, to- 
wards the church. But, at the very next com- 
mencement, as afterwards appeared, Mr. Wil- 
liams, the rector, entered into a combination with 
the Hampshire ministers, his father being at the 
head of them, to try, if it were possible, to get 
the members of the church, of which there were 
now six or seven congregations in Connecticut, 
deprived of their ministers, by contriving that 
the latter should be stripped of their salaries. 
This is evident from their letter to the Bishop 
of London, transmitted by Dr. Colman; which 
was full of groundless and unwarrantable com- 
plaints. In this unjustifiable attempt they were, 
however, as was to be expected, wholly unsuc- 
cessful. 

Mr. Johnson had resided at Stratford for a 
number of years, in the regular and prudent dis- 
charge of parochial duties ; but the church there 
had increased but little, as all possible care had 
been taken to prevent its growth, and as he did 
not make it his business to proselyte the dissen- 
ters. But in the neighbouring towns, where he 
sometimes officiated, many families conformed. 
In Fairfield a considerable congregation soon 
grew up; and, in 1725, Mr. Henry Caner, edu- 
cated at Yale College, and a candidate for holy 



LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 61 

-orders, afterwards a Doctor in Divinity, and 
minister of King's Chapel, Boston, began to 
read prayers there. In 1727, Mr. Caner went 
to England for ordination, and the society ap- 
pointed him their missionary to Fairfield. His 
occasional services at Norwalk greatly recom- 
mended the church ; and it was not long before 
he had a respectable congregation there, as well 
as at Fairfield. 

Mr. Johnson, in his excursions, often preached 
at Newtown, with peculiar success. At that 
time Mr. Beach, since well known by his many 
able defences of the doctrine and government of 
the Church of England, was the congregational 
minister of the place ; and was in high estima- 
tion not only there, but among the dissenters in 
Stratford, for his learning and piety. After a 
while this gentleman began to doubt of the vali- 
dity of the ordination he had received. For a 
considerable time he endeavoured to get over 
his scruples, but, in the end, he found it impos- 
sible. He therefore declared his conformity to 
the church in 1732, and many of his people con- 
formed with hira ; on which he went to England 
for holy orders, and was appointed their minister. 

This event put many on thinking, and had no 
small effect upon the dissenters at Stratford. 
Mr. Beach's brother, a man of distinction and 



62 LIFE Op DR. JOHNSON. 

property at Stratford, with several other per- 
sons, in a short time, came over to the church. 
This was soon followed by the conformity of 
Mr. Seabury*; who took holy orders, and came 
over the society's missionary for New London, 
where the congregation was considerable. This 
excellent clergyman continued there many 
years, and afterwards removed to Hempstead, 
on Long Island, where he died, in the year 1763, 
leaving behind him a character that is held in 
high esteem, and an example that is worthy of 
all imitation f. 

When, besides Mr. Johnson at Stratford, Mr. 
Caner was settled at Fairfield, Mr. Beach at 
Newtown, and Mr. Seabury at New London, 
the church began to make a visible progress in 
Connecticut; insomuch that in the year 1736, 
when an inquiry was made into the number of 
episcopal families in the whole colony, they 
were found to be no less than seven hundred. 
Tills increase was not altogether owing to the 
labours of the gentlemen above-mentioned, but 
was partly occasioned by the dissenters them- 
selves ; who, in the abundance of their zeal, 

* The congregational minister of Groton, 

t The late Right Rev. Bishop Seabury was a son of this 
clergyman. Ed. 



LIFE OF DC. JOHNSON. 6# 

carried their charges of Popery against the 
church, and their other misrepresentations, to 
an extravagant length. This made it necessary 
for the members of the church, in their own de- 
fence, to procure books that had been written in 
its vindication. Many of the more candid and 
inquisitive dissenters were persuaded to read 
them ; and they were surprised to find in what 
manner things had been misrepresented to them 
— especially after they ventured so far as to ac- 
quaint themselves with the liturgy, and the 
manner of our public service. 

But what, a few years after, more effectually 
contributed to the increase of the church in 
Connecticut, was a strange, wild enthusaism, 
introduced by Mr. Whitfield, and propagated by 
his followers throughout the country. At the 
first appearing of this adventurer, who was in 
the orders of the Church of England, and still 
wore the garb of her clergy, although he had 
violated her laws, as well as his own oath of ca- 
nonical obedience, and put her authority at defi- 
ance — he was received with all the marks of 
high approbation and applause by the dissenting 
ministers in general. Some of them undoubt- 
edly looked upon him as an extraordinary per- 
son, raised up by Providence, like John the 
Baptist, and coming in the spirit and power of 



64 



LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 



Elias, to rouse sinners from their spiritual slum- 
ber, and to bring men to seriousness of life, and 
the practice of piety ; and, indeed, there is 
reason to believe that his preaching was attended 
with good effects in several instances. But 
there were others of them who seemed to court 
him, because they considered him rather in the 
light of an instrument, by which the church in 
Connecticut might be crushed in her infancy, 
or at least her growth much retarded. This it 
was hoped might be effected by his bitter re- 
vilings of her bishops and clergy. But after a 
while many of his abettors were convinced of 
their mistake, and saw reason to repent of the 
countenance they had shown him. Instead of 
subverting, or even so much as shaking, the 
Church of England, he nearly occasioned the 
utter dissolution of their own churches. 

Soon after his passing through the country, 
several preachers undertook to be Whitfields 
too. They endeavoured to proceed in his man- 
ner, imitating his voice, his theatrical action, 
his vociferation ; they disregarded all the rules 
of ecclesiastical order, and strolled about from 
place to place, as he had done. It was not 
long before these were followed by a numerous 
train of ignorant lay-exhorters, uttering the most 
horrid expressions concerning God and religion. 



LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 65 

and proclaiming in the most affecting tones, and 
with the greatest violence and extravagance of 
gesture, the terrors of hell and damnation, in 
order to bring men to conversion. In several 
instances, by thus exciting the emotions of 
terror, they actually frightened persons out of 
the use of their reason. Their night meetings 
in particular, at some of which Mr. Johnson 
was present in disguise, exhibited the wildest 
scenes of confusion and uproar. At some of 
those assemblies, a number of persons might 
be seen sighing, groaning, dreadfully screeching, 
and wringing their hands, or smiting their 
breasts ; the preacher or exhorter, all the while 
tormenting them like a fiend, as the only way 
to bring them to Christ ; while others, who had 
lately been converted in this manner, were in 
the greatest ecstacies and raptures, triumphantly 
singing anthems and hallelujahs. Of these, some 
would fall into trances ; in which they conversed 
familiarly with Christ and his angels, and saw 
who were to be saved, and who damned ; and 
not a few of them would fall to censuring and 
reviling, as pharisees and the vilest hypocrites, 
those who were not converted in this way. 

These transactions at length threw the whole 
country into the greatest confusion, and were 
productive of divisions and separations without 



66 LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 

end. Many of the wisest, both ministers and 
people, foresaw the mischief that threatened, 
when it was too late to prevent it. Enthusiasm, 
like faction, is utterly ungovernable ; and it is 
not in the power of the ablest conductors to say 
to either of them, hitherto shalt thou go, and no 
farther. In the larger towns altar was raised 
against altar, and new meeting houses were 
erected in opposition to the old ones. Many 
pulpits resounded with declamations against the 
wickedness of schism; many pamphlets were 
published to prove its sinfulness ; and the govern- 
ment thought it necessary openly to discounte- 
nance it. But every attempt to restrain it proved 
to be an addition to its force, and was like 
throwing in oil to stop the fury of a conflagra- 
tion. In short the religious constitution of 
Connecticut was convulsed, and the symptoms 
of its surviving were very unpromising. 

Amidst these confusions, large numbers of 
cool and considerate people, finding no rest 
among the dissenters, betook themselves to the 
church, as the only ark of safety. At Stratford 
in particular, many of the principal families con- 
formed ; so that the church, which was built in 
1723, was not sufficiently large to contain them. 
They proceeded, therefore, to erect a new one, 
which was much larger, and on a more elegant 



LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 67 

plan than the former. It was begun in 1743, and 
opened July 8, 1744; on which occasion Mr. 
Johnson preached an excellent sermon^ from 
Psalm xxvi. 8. which was published at the re- 
quest of the hearers. To this sermon, concern- 
ing the obligations we are under to love and de- 
light in the public tvorship of God, were added, 
as an encouragement for family worship, forms 
of prayer proper to be used by Christian fami- 
lies, with others for the use of the closet. About 
the same time, congregations having been ga- 
thered, churches were built in many other 
places, as at Norwalk, Stamford, Reading, 
Darby, West Haven, Ripton, Guilford, &c. and 
several young gentlemen of character, who had 
been educated at Yale College, conformed and 
received holy orders*. 

The Church of England in Connecticut, being- 
surrounded with enemies, was from the begin- 
ning, frequently assaulted in the way of open 
attack, as well as by every secret stratagem, that 
could be devised. This obliged Mr. Johnson, 
and afterwards other missionaries, to write in its 
defence. In 1725, one of Mr. Johnson's pa- 
rishioners was zealously attacked byMr.Dicken- 

* Of that number were Dr. Chandler himself, Drs. Jieaming, 
Dibblee, Mansfield, and others. Ed. 

F 2 



68 LIFE OF DR« JOHNSON. 

son, of Elizabeth Town, New Jersey,, (a man 
of parts and considerable learning, but a true 
zealot against the Church) on the subject of 
Episcopacy. Being not able to make a proper 
defence against such an antagonist, he applied 
to Mr. Johnson for his assistance ; who drew up a 
sketch of the common arguments in favour of 
the doctrine of the Church, and gave it to him. 
This the man sent in his own name, as an an- 
swer to Mr. Dickenson, and soon had his re- 
ply ; to which Mr. Johnson furnished him with 
a rejoinder. Some time after Mr. Dickenson 
enlarged and printed his own papers in this 
dispute ; upon which Mr. Johnson thought pro- 
per to publish what he had written on the other 
side. Here Mr. Foxcroft, of Boston, stepped in, 
and took up the cause against the Church, writ- 
ing fully and largely, and more artfully than 
Mr. Dickenson had done. Mr. Johnson an- 
swered him, and no reply was returned. 

While this controversy was depending, about 
the year 1732, the Church in Connecticut was 
more violently and rudely attacked by Mr. 
Graham, of Woodbury, in a scurrilous, mali- 
cious, and awkward ballad which he published. 
This, together with the earnest request of Mr. 
Beach, one of Mr. Johnson's principal parishion- 
ers, who had been charged with the heinous sin of 



LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 69 

covenant-breaking, because he left the Dissenters 
and entered into the communion of the Churchy 
determined him to draw up and publish a tract, 
containing Plain Reasons for conforming to the 
Church. To this, in the year following Mr. 
Graham wrote an answer. Mr. Johnson replied 
to it; Mr. Graham rejoined; and Mr. Johnson 
defended himself and the Church in a third 
tract, which put an end to the dispute. These 
coutroversies reached down to 1736. 

At the time when the enthusaism before- 
mentioned became rampant in Connecticut, 
placing every thing in absolute predestination 
and mere sovereignty, denying that there are 
any promises made in Scripture to our prayers 
and endeavours, and leaving no ground for the 
practice of religion on any consistent and rational 
principles, Mr. Johnson published an excellent 
pamphlet, under the title of A Letter from Aris- 
tocles to Anthades. The design of it was, to 
place the doctrine of Scripture relating to the 
divine sovereignty and promises, in a clear and 
true light. Mr. Dickenson wrote against this 
piece; and it was defended, in a candid and 
masterly manner, in a letter from Mr. Johnson 
to Mr. Dickenson. 

In prosecution of his general plan, for check- 
ing the progress of enthusaism, and counteract- 



70 LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 

ing the absurd doctrines tliat were perpetually 
propagated throughout the country, Mr. Johnson 
drew up a system of morality, containing the 
first principles of moral philosophy, or ethics, in 
a chain of necessary consequences from certain 
facts ; which was published in 1746. v'ln part I. 
which treats of the speculative part of moral phi- 
losophy, the author particularly considers the 
nature of man, his excellence and imperfections 
— the author of our nature, his perfections and 
operations — and the end of our being, with the 
natural proofs of a future state. In part II. con- 
cerning the practical part of moral philosophy, 
he treats, in separate chapters, of the duties in 
general resulting from the foregoing truths — and 
particularly, of the duties which we owe to our- 
selves — of those we owe to God — and of those 
which are due to our fellow creatures, according 
to their various stations and characters, and the 
relation we bear to them. This work was season- 
able, and was well received by the sober and 
judicious part of his countrymen, and there is 
reason to believe that it had a good effect upon 
the country in general. 

In consequence of Mr. Johnson's signalizing 
himself by his good conduct, and his numerous 
publications, which in England were much 
applauded, his old friend Dr. Astry, recom- 



LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 71 

mended him to the University of Oxford, for 
the degree of doctor in divinity; w^hich was 
readily and unanimously conferred upon him by 
diploma, in February 1743. Twenty years 
before, the University, in the diploma given him 
for his master's degree, used this expression : 
'' Sperantes nempe, illius Ministerio, aliam et 
eandem, olim, nascituram, Ecclesiam Anglica- 
nam." To this they allude in their present di- 
ploma, as partly accomplished in the late great 
increase of the Church, in which he had been in- 
strumental ; and Dr. Astry, in his letter on the 
occasion of transmitting the diploma, tells him, 
.*' He did not so much consider himself as doing 
a good office to a private friend, as promoting 
the public interest of religion." Several persons 
of rank and distinction, as Dr. Johnson was in- 
formed by his friend Dr. Astry, were very active 
in procuring his degree ; particularly Dr. Seeker, 
then Bishop of Oxford, and afterwards Arch- 
bishop of Canterbury, and Dr. Hodges, Provost 
of Oriel College, and Vice- Chancellor of the 
University.* To them the Doctor made his 

* Dr. Hodges, in his oration before the university, Oct. 5, 
1744, when he resigned the office of vice-chancellor, speaks of 
this degree conferred upon Dr. Johnson, as one of the most 
agreeable things that had happened during his administration. 
" Fateor autem me," says he '* Voluntati vestrse obsecundare 



72 LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 

thankful acknowledgments ; and in his letter to 
Bishop Seeker, he took the occasion to thank him 
for his admirable sermon, then lately preached 
before the society ; in which he had excelled all 
his predecessors in pleading the cause of the 
Church of England in the colonies, and had par- 
ticularly urged the necessity of sending Bishops 
to America. The doctor enlarged on the neces- 
sity of establishing an Episcopate in the colo- 
nies, and requested his lordship to continue the 
exertion of his influence and great abilities to- 
wards obtaining a blessing of such importance. 
The Bishop wrote the following polite and kind 
answer to him, which introduced a correspond- 
semper paratum, numquam ad jussa vestra capessenda para- 
tiorem accessisse quam in illo justissimo decreto exequendo, 
quo egregium virum* in propaganda fide apud Indos Occiden- 
tales feliciter occupatum Doctorali Gradu voluistis insigniri. 
Operi tarn divino se accingentem, iterque officio tarn pio desti- 
natum instituentem, liberali gradus magistralis viatico, quo 
potuistis utilissimo, aliquando olim instuxistis: Spes vestras 
minime fefellit fidus illi Christi Minister, qui ornamentum ipsi 
delatum in usum Ecclesiae Deique gloriam egregie convertebat. 
Erat sequissimum, ut virtutem ita spectatam viribus vestris et 
subsidiis omnibus aleretis, promoveretis. Illi, qui ex una mina 
lucrifacit decern, divini nostri magistri sequaces plura et hono- 
rificentiora esse committenda jure et exemplo summo decre- 
vistis." See Dr. Hodges's Theological Pieces, Sfc. p. 334. 

* Samuclem Johnson. 



LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 73 

ence that continued till near the time of his 
lordship's death, in 1768. 

" St. James's, Westminster, March 8, 1745. 

" Sir, 

" I thank you heartily for the favour of your 
obliging letter. If I contributed any thing to- 
wards obtaining your degree, it was only by 
a'cquainting some members of the university 
with your character : and if I have furthered, in 
any measure, by my sermon, the designs of the 
society, God be thanked. For next to the sup- 
port of religion, if it be possible, amongst our^ 
selves, our principal object should be the encou- 
raging it in our colonies. Every thing looks 
very discouraging here ; ecclesiastical and civil, 
domestic and foreign. God avert from us the 
judgments we have deserved ; or, if he hath de- 
termined our fall, raise you up in our stead, that 
his truth may still have some place of refuge ! 
We have been greatly blameable, amongst many 
other things, towards you ; particularly in giving 
you no^Bishops. But I see no prospect of the 
amendment of that or any thing, except what 
arises from the contemplation of his overruling 
Providence, who brings light out of darkness. 

" Being taken up, while in town, with the 
care of a parish, which is too much for me, and 
having no interest amongst the great, I can at- 



74 LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 

tend the society but little, and serve them yet 
less : but shall be glad to receive whatever you 
may please to communicate to me concerning 
the state of religion amongst you ; v^hich will 
always have my best wishes and prayers. I 
earnestly pray God to bless you for the sake of 
it ; and am, with much regard. Sir, your loving 
brother, and humble servant, 

" Tho. Oxford. 
" To the Rev. Dr, Johnson." 

«;]'* About this time Dr. Johnson entered upon a 
new course of studies, both philosophical and 
theological; which, as it depended upon his 
beloved Hebrew, was the more agreeable, and 
engaged the whole of his time that could be 
spared from the duties of his station. He had 
met with Lord President Forbes's Thoughts on 
Religion, and Letter to a Bishop. This led him 
to procure the works of Mr. John Hutchinson, 
which have made such a noise in the learned 
world. These he read over again and again; 
he studied them with the utmost care and 
attention, making use of all the assistance he 
could obtain from the best critics and lexico- 
graphers. At length he became entirely satis- 
fied in his own mind, with regard to the follow- 
ing particulars. On the one hand, many of Mr. 
Hutchinson's criticisms appeared to him to be 



LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 75 

unjust, and man^r of his translations forced and 
unnatural. He was also greatly disgusted at the 
superciliousness of that author, who treats the 
great names of Sir Isaac Newton and Dr. Clarke 
contemptuously, and represents them as no better 
than atheists, and apostates from Christianity ; 
nor did he think that he had done justice to the 
characters of Philo and the Jewish Rabbies, 
however obnoxious they were in many respects. 
Yet, on the other hand, he was struck with ad- 
miration of the profound and stupendous genius 
of Mr. Hutchinson, which appeared to him to 
be but little, if at all, inferior to that of Sir Isaac 
himself. He thought he had really weakened 
the principles of the Newtonian philosophy, 
showing its inconsistency in several points ; and 
that he had proved that the only right system of 
philosophy is taught in the Bible. With regard 
to divinity, it appeared to him. 1 . That there 
was the highest probability that Mr. Hutchin- 
son had discovered some very important ancient 
truths, that had been in a manner lost, particu- 
larly with respect to the divine names, the che- 
rubim, &c. 2. That he had most effectually 
confuted the Jews, Infidels, Arians, and Here- 
tics of other denominations. 3. That by ex- 
plaining the sacred language and hieroglyphics 
he had made it evident that the whole method 

§ 



76 LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 

of our redemption by Christ was much more 
clearly revealed to our first parents, and much 
better understood in the patriarchal and Mosaic 
ages, than has been commonly imagined. 4. That, 
as he had best shown the origin of philosophy 
and religion, so he had given the best account 
of the rise of idolatry that is any where extant. 
In a word, notwithstanding the obscurity of his 
language, his proneness to run into extremes, 
and his other literary deficiencies, yet, in Dr. 
Johnson's opinion, no man, in these latter ages, 
has ever appeared to have studied so labo- 
riously, and to have understood so thoroughly, 
the Hebrew language and antiquities as Mr. 
Hutchinson*. In this opinion he was after- 

* The reader will find an explanation and defence of several 
of the philosophical and theological principles of Hutchinson 
in the works of the Rev. William Jones, of Nayland ; and also 
in two small tracts written by Bishop Home, while Fellow of 
Magdalen College, Oxford, entitled, An Apology for certain 
Gentlemen in the University of Oxford ; and A fair, candid and 
impartial State of. the Case between Sir Isaac Newton and Mr. 
Hutchinson ; in which is shown how far a System of Physics is 
capable of Mathematical Demonstration — how far Sir Isaac's, as 
such a System, has that Demonstration — and, consequently, what 
regard Mr. Hutchinson's Claim may deserve to have paid to it. 
The following account of the principles of the Hutchinsonians 
is extracted from the preface to the second edition of Jones's hfe 
of Bishop Home, and it is thought will prove acceptable to the 
reader. Ed. 



LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 77 

wards more strongly confirmed, by reading again 
Stillingfleet's Origines SacrcE, Gale's Court of the 

" 1. In the first place the followers of Mr. Hutchinson give 
to God the pre-eminence in every thing. His authority with 
them is above all authority : His wisdom above all wisdom : 
His truth above all truth. They judge every thing to be good 
or bad, wise or foolish, as it promotes or hinders the belief of 
Christianity. On which account, their first enemies are to be 
found among sceptics, infidels and atheists. Their next ene- 
mies are those who are afraid of believing too much : such as 
our Socinians and their confederates, who admit Christianity as 
a fact, but deny it as a doctrine. 

" 2. They hold, that only one way of salvation has been 
revealed to man from the beginning of the world; viz. the 
way of faith in God, redemption by Jesus Christ, and a de- 
tachment from the world : and that this way is revealed in 
both Testaments. 

" 3. That in both Testaments divine things are explained and 
confirmed to the understandings of men, by allusions to the 
natural creation. I say confirmed ; because the Scripture is 
so constant and uniform in the use it makes of natural objects, 
that such an analogy appears between the sensible and spiritual 
world, as carries with it sensible evidence to the truth of revela- 
tion ; and they think that, where this evidence is once appre- 
hended by the mind, no other will be wanted. They are, 
therefore, persuaded, it may have great effect toward making 
men Christians, in this last age of the world ; now the original 
evidence of miracles is remote, and almost forgotten. 

" 4. They are confirmed Trinitarians. They became such 
at their baptism in common with other Christians : and they 
are kept such by their principles ; especially by what is called 
the Hutchinsonian philosophy of fire, light, and air. Nature 



78 LIFE OF DR. JOHNSOK. 

Gentiles, Gudworth's Intellectual System, and 
other books of the like nature. 

shows us these three agents in the world, on which all natural 
life and motion depend ; and these three are used in the Scrip- 
ture to signify to us the three supreme powers of the Godhead, 
in the administration of the spiritual world ; notwithstanding 
the judgment which our new biographer hath passed against 
them. Let any philosopher show us one single effect, of which 
it may be proved, that neither fire, light, nor air contribute to 
it in any of their various forms. 

" 5. Gn the authority of the Scriptures, they entertain so low 
an opinion of human nature, under the consequences of the 
fall, that they derive every thing in religion from revelation or 
tradition. A system may be fabricated, and called natural ; 
but a religion it cannot be ; for there never was a religion, 
among Jews or Gentiles, Greeks, Romans, or Barbarians, since 
the beginning of the world, without sacrifice and priesthood : 
of which natural religion, having neither, is consequently no 
religion. The imagination of man, by supposing a religion 
without these, has done infinite disservice to the only religion 
by which man can be saved. It has produced the deistical 
substitution of naked morality, or Turkish honesty, for the 
doctrines of intercession, redemption, and divine grace. It has 
no gift from God, but that nature, which came poor, and blind, 
and naked out of Paradise; subject only to further misery, 
from its own lusts and the temptations of the devil. A re- 
ligion, more flattering to the pride of man, pleases his fancy 
better than this ; but it will never do him any good. 

" Hutchinson himself had a strong sense of this, that he 
looked upon natural religion as deism in disguise ; an engine 
of the devil, in these latter days, for the overthrow of the 
Gospel ; and therefore boldly called it the religion of Satan or 



LIFE 0¥ DR. JOHNSONo 79 

Dr. Johnson had two sons, William Samuel, 
bom October 7, 1727, and William, born March 

Antichrist. Let the well-informed Christian look about him 
and consider, whether his words, extravagant as they might 
seem at first, have not been fully verified. I myself, for one, 
am so thoroughly persuaded of this, that I determine never to 
give quarter to natural religion, when it falls in my way to 
speak of the all-sufficiency of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We 
know very well how the Scripture is brought in to give its 
countenance to the notion of a natural religion : but we know 
also that dark texts are drawn to such a sense, as to- render 
all the rest of the Scripture of no effect ; as hath happened in 
the doctrines of predestination and natural religion ; by the 
former of which we lose the Church, by the latter its Faith. 
Facts bring a dispute to a short issue. If Voltaire were alive, 
I would be judged by him, whether Christianity hath not 
been going down ever since natural religion came up. And 
we know, by what his disciples, the French, have done, that 
natural religion comes up, when Christianity is put down. 
These facts teach us, that they will not stand long together. 
Whether they possibly might or not is not worth an inquiry; 
because he that has got Christianity may leave natural religion 
to shift for itself. 

"6. Few writers for natural religion have shown any regard 
to the types and figures of the Scripture, or known much about 
them. But the Hutchinsonians, with the old Christian Fathers, 
and the divines of the reformation, are very attentive to them, 
and take great delight in them. They differ in their nature 
from all the learning of the world : and so much of the wisdom 
of revelation is contained in them, that no Christian should 
neglect the knowledge of them. All infidels abominate them. 
Lord Bolingbroke calls St. Paul a eabalist for arguing from 



80 LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON". 

9, 1731. As they grew up, he found it ne- 
cessary to take the instruction of them upon 

them ; but the Hutchinsonians are ambitious of being such 
cabalists as St. Paul was. 

" 7. In natural philosophy they have great regard to the 
name of Newton, as the most wonderful genius of his kind. 
But they are sure his method of proving a vacuum is not agree- 
able to nature. A vacuum cannot be deduced from the theory 
of resistances : for, if motion be from impulsion, as Newton 
himself, and some of the wisest of his followers, have sus- 
pected; then the cause of motion will never resist the motion 
which it causes. The rule, which is true when applied to com- 
municated motion, does not hold when applied to the motions 
of nature. For the motions of nature change from less to 
more ; as when a spark turns to a conflagration : but commu- 
nicated motion always changes from more to less : so that there 
is an essential difference between them, and we cannot argue 
from the one to the other. Mr. Cotes's demonstration, it is well 
known, is applicable only to communicated motion ; I mean 
only such as is violent or artificial. There is no need of a 
vacuum in the heavens : it is more reasonable and more agree- 
able to nature that they should be filled with a circulating 
fluid, which does not hinder motion, but begins it and pre- 
serves it. 

" They cannot allow inert matter to be capable (as mind is) 
of active qualities ; but ascribe attraction, repulsion, &c. to 
subtle causes, not immaterial. There may be cases very in- 
tricate and difficult ; but they take the rule from plain cases, 
and supposing nature to be uniform and consistent, they apply 
it to the rest. 

" 8. In natural history, they maintain, against all the wild 
theories of infidels, which come up, one after another, like 



LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 81 

himself. He entered them into Latin when six 
years old, and sent them to Yale College when 

mushrooms, and soon turn rotten, that the present condition of 
the earth bears evident marks of an universal flood ; and that 
extraneous fossils are to be accounted for from the same ca- 
tastrophe. Many of them are therefore diligent collectors of 
fossil bodies, which are valuable to the curious in considera- 
tion of their origin. 

'• 9. What commonly passes under the name of learning, is 
a knowledge of Heathen books ; but it should always be ad- 
mitted with great precaution. For they think of all Heathens, 
that, from the time when they commenced Heathens, they 
never worshipped the true God, the Maker of heaven and 
earth ; but, instead of him, the elements of the world, the 
powers of nature, and the lights of heaven : that the love of 
vice and vanity was the real cause of their ignorance : they did 
not know the true God, because they did not like to know him : 
and that the same passions will give us an inclination to the 
principles of Heathens, rather than to the principles of Chris- 
tians ; and that most of the ill principles of this age come out 
of the Heathen school. The favourers of Mr. Hutchinson's 
scheme are, therefore, reputed to be the enemies of learnino-. 
But they are not so. They are enemies only to the abuses of 
it, and to the corruptions derived from it. To all false learn- 
ing, that is to human folly, affecting to be wisdom, they have 
indeed a mortal aversion in their hearts, and can hardly be 
civil to it in their words ; as knowing that the more a man has 
of false wisdom, the less room there will be for the true. Me- 
taphysics, which consist of words without ideas ; illustrations 
of Christian subjects from Heathen parellels ; theories founded 
only on imagination ; speculations on the mind of man, which 
yield no solid matter to it, but lead it into dangerous opinions 

G 



82 LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 

they were about thirteen ; by which time they 
had read many more of the Latin and Greek 

atout itself : these, and other things of the kind, with which 
modern learning abounds, they regard as they would the paint- 
ing of a ghost, or the splitting of an atom*. 

" 10. Of Jews, they think that they are the inveterate ene- 
mies of Christianity; never to be trusted as our associates 
either in Hebrew or divinity. No Philo, no Josephus, no Tal- 
mudist, is to be depended upon ; but suspected and sifted, as 
dangerous apostates from true Judaism. It is plausibly argued, 
that Jews, as native Hebrews, must, like other natives, be best 
acquainted with their own language. But the case of the Jews 
is without a parallel upon earth. They are out of their native 
state ; and have an interest fin deceiving Christians by every 
possible means, and depriving them of the evidence of the Old 
Testarrient. 

" 11. They are of opinion, that the Hebrew is the primaeval 
and original language ; that its structure shows it to be divine ; 
and that a comparison with other languages shows its priority. 

" 12. The Cherubim of the Scriptures were mystical figures, 
of high antiquity and great signification. Those of Eden, and 
of the tabernacle, and of Ezekiel's vision all belong to the 
same original. Irenaeus has enough upon them to justify the 
Hutchinsonian acceptation of them. The place they had in 
the Holy of Holies, and their use in the Sacred Ritual sets 
them very high. Their appellation, as Cherubim of glory\, 
does the same ; and the reasoning of St. Paul, from the 
shadows of the law to the priesthood of Christ, sets them high- 
est of all ; obliging us to infer, that they were symbolical of 

<' * See more on this subject, p. 101. of the life. 
" t Compare Acts. vii. 'O Qiog rtjg do^r/Q. 



LIFE OF DR. JOHNSOX. 83 

classics, than had been read by any boys in the 
country. The elder commencd A.B. in 1744, 

the divine Presence. The Ttaaapa ^wa in the Revelation of 
St. John (improperly called beasts, for one of them was a man, 
and another a bird) must be taken for the same ; where the 
figures of the old law bow down and surrender all power 
and glory to the evangelical figure of the Lamb that was slain. 
Here the dostrine is thought to labour a little ; but if the ^w« 
are considered only as figures, the case alters. And, if this 
great subject should have parts and circumstances not to be 
understood, we must argue from what is understood. They 
seem to have been known in the Christian Church of the first 
centuries ; but not with the help of the Jews, So also was the 
analogy of the three agents {foig, wp, -n-v^vixa,) these being 
expressly mentioned by Epiphanius, as similitudes of the 
Divine Trinity. 

'• In their physiological capacity, so far as we can find, the 
Cherubim seem never to have been considered before Mr. 
Hutchinson ; who very properly derives from thein all animal- 
worship among the heathens. This subject is of great extent 
and depth ; comprehending a mass of Mythological learning, 
well worthy of a diligent examination. 

*' These things come down to us under the name of John 
Hutchinson ; a character sui generis, such as the common 
forms of education could have never produced : and it seems 
to me not to have been well explained, how and by what 
means he fell upon things, seemingly so new and uncommon : 
but we do not enquire whose they are, but what they are, and 
what they are good for. If the tide had brought them to 
shore in a trunk, marked with the initals J. H. while I was 
walking by the sea-side, I would have taken them up, and 
kept them for use ; without being solicitous to know what ship 
G 2 



84 LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 

and A.M. in 1747, He fixed upon the law for 
his profession, in which he soon became emi- 

they came out of, or how far, and how long, they had been 
floating at the mercy of the wind and waves. If they should 
get from my hands into better hands, I should rejoice ; being 
persuaded they would revive in others the dying flame of 
Christian faith, as they did in Bishop Home and myself. And 
why should any good men be afraid of them ? There is no- 
thing here that tends to make men troublesome, as heretics, 
fanatics, sectaries, rebels, or corrupters of any kind of useful 
learning. All these things a man may believe, and still be a 
good subject, a devout Christian, and a sound member of the 
Church of England : perhaps more sound, and more useful, 
than he would have been without them. For myself I may say, 
(as I do in great humility) that by following them through 
the course of a long life, I have found myself much enlightened, 
much assisted in evidence and argument, and never corrupted ; 
as I hope my writings, if they should last, will long bear me 
witness. If these principles should come into use with other 
people, I am confident they would turn Christians into 
Scholars, and Scholars into Christians ; enabling them to de- 
monstrate, how shallov/ infidels are in their learning, and how 
greatly every man is a loser by his ignorance of Revelation." 

The Editor cannot refrain from presenting to the reader 
the following testimony to the eminent talents and worth of 
the Rev. W. Jones, the writer of the above extract. This 
testimony comes from an English prelate, whose laborious 
writings in mathematical and physical science, as well as 
in theology and sacred criticism, have ranked him among the 
most profound scholars and divines that his country has pro- 
duced — Dr. Samuel Horsley, successively Archdeacon of St. 



LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 85 

nent. He was chosen one of the assistants (or 
of his Majesty's council) in Connecticut, 1766, 
by which time the University of Oxford had con- 
ferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Laws ; 
and before the end of the year, the colony ap- 

Alban's, Bishop of St. David's, of Rochester, and of St. Asaph 
— Progrediatur ! In his charge to the Clergy of the diocese 
of Rochester, in the year 1800, Bishop Horsley thus 
speaks : 

" When by assiduity in your pubhc and private ministry ; 
by the purity of your lives, and the soundness of your doc- 
trines, you have gained the good-will and esteem of your 
parishioners, they will be ready to give you their atten- 
tion upon a subject, upon which the people of this country 
in general much want good teaching. I mean the nature of 
the Church, the necessity of Church communion, and the 
danger of schism. Upon these points I know nothing so well 
calculated for general edification as a tract, entitled, An 
Essmj on the Church, by the late Rev. William Jones, some 
time of Pluckley, in this county, but last of Nayland in Suffolk. 
It has lately been republished, in a small size, and at a 
cheap rate, by the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge, 
of which the author had been many years a most useful 
member. Of that faithful servant of God I can speak both 
from personal knowledge and from his writings. He was 
a man of quick penetration, of extensive learning, and the 
soundest piety ; and he had, beyond any other man I ever 
knew, the talent of writing upon the deepest subjects to the 
plainest understandings. He is gone to rest, and his works, 
we trust, follow him. His Catholic Doctr'me of the Trinity, 
and this Essaij on the Church, cannot have too wide a cir- 
culation." Bishop of Rochester's Charge, second edition, p. 37. 



8*6 LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 

pointed hitii their Agent Extraordinary. In the 
execution of this high trust, he embarked for 
England, December 24, 1766, where he resided 
till towards the middle of the year 1771*. The 
doctor's younger son commenced A.B. in 1748, 
and A.M. in 1751. His inclination led him to 
the study of divinity, and devote himself to 
the service of the church. Of him more will 
be said hereafter. 

The Doctor had composed a compendium of 
logic, including metaphysics, and another of 
ethics, for the better instruction of his two sons 
in those studies. Those were printed together 
in an octavo volume in 1752, by Mr. Franklin, 
in Philadelphia, for the use of the college in that 
city then about to be erected, and of which, 
Mr. Franklin, so justly celebrated throughout 
the learned world for his discoveries and im- 
provements in electricity, was one of the most 
active promoters. On that occasion he fre- 
quently corresponded with Dr. Johnson, whom 
he esteemed one of the best judges of such 
matters in the country. He consulted him about 

* This gentleman has continued to enjoy, in an eminent 
degree, the affection and confidence of his countrymen. He 
has filled several high civil stations, and, last of all, the office 
of President of the college in New York, from which a few 
years sihcfe'he retired to Stratford, where he still resides. Ed. 



LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 87 

the plan of education for the college, and urged 
him to undertake the presidency of it ; which 
proposal, although it was in many respects 
agreeable to the doctor, he finally declined. 
The college was soon after established, and 
placed under the direction of Mr. Smith, who 
had been educated in one of the universities of 
Scotland, and came over in the character of a 
private tutor to a gentleman's family and whose 
shining abilities, of which the public had already 
received abundant proof, sufficiently recom- 
mended him as a person well qualified for this 
important station. This gentleman went to 
Europe and took holy orders in 1753; and in 
1 759 he again went to Europe, when the degree 
of Doctor in Divinity was conferred upon him 
by the University of Oxford*. 

Animated by the example of the Philadel- 
phians, a number of gentlemen in New York 
undertook to found a college also in that city, 
where it was equally necessary. Most of these 
gentlemen were members of the Church of 
England, but some of them belonged to the 
Dutch Churchy and some were Presbyterians. 
Mr. De Lancey, the lieutenant-governor, and 

* Tlie Rev. Dr. William Smith, justly celebrated as an 
eloquent writer and preacher, died in the year 1802,,„ His 
works in several volumes, have been published. Ed. 2 



88 LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 

then Commander in Chief, was at the head of 
this association. In the beginning" of the year 
1753, an act of Assembly was obtained, appoint- 
ing Mr. De Lancey and other gentlemen of the 
different religious denominations, Trustees for 
carrying the design into execution. The same 
act made some provision for a fund, by a suc- 
cession of lotteries. In conducting this scheme, 
Dr. Johnson was all along consulted ; and 
through him, application was made to Bishop 
Berkeley for his advice and direction, which 
he was pleased very freely to give, in a letter to 
the doctor. 

In 1754, the Trustees unanimously chose Dr. 
Johnson, President of their intended college, and 
requested him to remove to New York as soon 
as possible, that he might be able to give more 
effectual assistance in bringing it forward. But 
he complied with reluctance. He was happy in 
his people at Stratford, had been always fond of 
a country life, and was in easy circumstances ; 
all which were strong inducements for not ac- 
cepting the offer. But his principal reasons 
against it were, his fear of the small-pox, to 
which he must often be exposed in the city ; 
but more especially the consideration of his 
advanced state of life, being now turned of 
fifty-seven. These things he represented to his 



LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 89 

chief friends in New York, and the principal 
managers of the college ; but they declared, that 
if he declined they would relinquish the institu- 
tion. It was his advice, that they should pro- 
cure some proper person for the station from one 
of the universites in Great Britain ; but they 
did not think fit to follow his advice. Finding 
this to be the case, he at length consented 
to go to New York about the middle of April 
following, by way of trial ; but he would not 
absolutely accept of the post till the charter 
should be passed, and he could see what kind of 
college it was likely to prove. Accordingly he 
left Stratford, as he had promised, on the 15th 
of April 1754, but did not remove his family till 
after the charter was passed. 

His parting with his people was very affec- 
tionate, and one of the most difficult tasks he 
had ever undertaken. He had lived happily 
with them for upwards of thirty years, and no- 
thing could have reconciled his mind and con- 
science to leaving them, but strong hopes of 
becoming more extensively useful to his fellow- 
creatures, in an affair of so much importance as 
education undoubtedly is, especially in a place 
where a public seminary of learning was so 
greatly wanted. 

But before the time last mentioned, a violent 



90 LIFE OF DR. JOIlNSOlSr. 

opposition was made to the design. The plan of 
the Trustees was extensive and generous, aim- 
ing at the general good of all denominations of 
people in the province. However, as a majority 
of that board, as well as of the gentlemen in 
the city who had the cause of a college at heart, 
were of the Church of England, they proposed, 
and thought it expedient on many accounts, that 
the Church should have the preference so far as 
that the president should always be a person in 
the communion of the Church of England, and 
that the college prayers to be used every morn- 
ing and evening should be a collection from 
the Liturgy. To this the Dutch gentlemen 
readily consented . B ut it was furiously opposed 
by others, who filled the whole province with 
their clamour, and exerted their utmost influence, 
both publicly and privately, to persuade the As- 
sembly not to grant the college the money raised 
by lotteries, to the amount of several thousand 
pounds. They contended that no sort of pre- 
ference ought to be given to any one denomina- 
tion of Christians, for they knew it could not 
be obtained for themselves ; and went so far as 
to draw up, and publish, and present to the As- 
sembly, the form of a charter fitted to their own 
purposes. However, the Assembly thought pro- 
per to put aside their draft, and, after a little 



LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. dl 

wliile, no more was heard of it. The party still 
opposed the granting of the money, and many 
papers were written on both sides. To put an 
end to the controversy, which had a bad effect 
upon the tempers of the people, Mr. De Lancey 
passed the charter, October 31, 1754, incorpo- 
rating several persons e^v officio, and twenty-four 
principal gentlemen of the city, including some 
of the clergy of different denominations, and 
their successors, by the name and title of the 
Governors of the College of the Province of New 
York, in the City of New York, in America. 
Dr. Johnson was appointed in the charter the 
first president, and the president thereafter was 
always to be a member in the communion of the 
C^hurch of England, and the prayers to be a col- 
lection out of the Liturgy, with a particular col- 
lect for the college. Dr. Johnson then accepted 
of the appointment ; yet on this condition, that 
he should be at liberty to retire to some place 
of safety in the country, whenever the small-pox 
should render it dangerous for him to reside in 
the city. 

In the month of June he published an adver- 
tisement in the gazette, giving a short account 
of the design of the college, of the plan of edu- 
cation, and of the qualifications requisite for ad- 
mission ; and he appointed a day for the exami- 



92 LIFE OF DR. JOHN SOW* | 

nation of candidates. On the day appointed ten ; 

young gentlemen, including two from other col- 
leges, were admitted, and formed the first class. 
The Doctor took this class under his own imme- 
diate care, and began to instruct them, July 17, 
in the large vestry-room belonging to the corpo- 
ration of Trinity Church. 

About this time he wrote to Dr. Sherlock, 
Bishop of London, with whom he had been ho- 
noured with a correspondence, and to the So- 
ciety for the Propagation of the Gospel ; in- 
forming them of the design of the college, of his 
own appointment to the superintendency of it, 
and of the opposition it met with ; and request- 
ing for it his lordship's and the society's patron- 
age. The Bishop, in his answer, expressed an 
entire approbation both of the college and of the 
choice that had been made of the president ; 
and he encouraged the Doctor to go on, with 
patience and resolution, in so good a work. The 
society's answer was to the same effect. Both 
his lordship and the society promised to patro- 
nize the college ; and the good effects of this i 
seasonable and well-judged recommendation, 
seconded by an address to the society from the 
vestry of Trinity Church, afterwards appeared i 
in such acts of kindness and generosity as should 
never be forgotten. 



LIFE OF DR, JOHNSON. 93 

The Doctor took this occasion affectionately 
to recommend to the society his late congrega- 
tion at Stratford, now left destitute of a minister, 
expressing great anxiety and concern on their 
account. The society engaged to provide for 
them in the best manner they could ; and, not 
long after, they sent Mr. Winslow, their mis- 
sionary, to Stratford, who was deservedly es- 
teemed by the church at that place. 

As soon as the college was established by 
charter. Dr. Johnson proceeded vigorously in 
bringing things into method and order. He 
drew up the form for the daily prayers, which 
he extracted from the Liturgy, and composed 
the collect for the college, and got them printed 
with the Psalter ; he compiled a small body of 
laws for present use, to be further improved as 
there should be occasion ; and he made a device 
for the seal of the corporation. All these things 
were approved and established by the gover- 
nors. At the same time the plan for the build- 
ing was agreed upon, and the workmen soon got 
into motion. 

By the admission of a second class, an assist- 
ant tutor was rendered necessary; and as Mr. 
Whittelsey, for whom that place was originally 
intended, if he could be persuaded to accept of 
it, thought proper to refuse it, it was given to 
Mr. William Johnson, the president's younger 



94 LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 

son ; a young gentlemen of fine genius and ami- 
able disposition, and an excellent classical scho- 
lar. And now large subscriptions and dona- 
tions were made and collected, and all things 
were carried on with order and spirit. 

But the disaffected party continued to oppose 
the design with their usual virulence and cla- 
mour. It was their immediate aim to proselyte 
a majority of the House of Assembly to their 
party, in order to prevent a grant of the money 
raised by lotteries. And when it was under- 
stood that Sir Charles Hardy was coming over 
as governor of the province, with regard to 
whose principles and character they happened 
to be mistaken, they prepared an inflammatory 
address, in one of the numbers of the Watch 
To2ver^, on the subject of the college, hoping to 
engage his interest in opposition to it ; and on 
his arrival they presented it. But Sir Charles 
received it with coldness, and treated it as it 
deserved. On the other hand, he received the 
address of the governors of the college, pre- 
sented by the president, with the greatest re- 
spect and politeness. He signified that he was 
desirous of seeing their subscription paper ; and 
the next day, when it was brought to him, he 
generously subscribed, without any solicitations, 

* See Watch Tower, No. XLIL 



LIFE OF DR. JOHTSrSON. 95 

live hundred pounds for the college. This was 
such a disappointment and mortification to its 
opposers, that from that time they were silent, 
and gave no further molestation. Not long after 
the board of governors, who had an equitable 
and just right to the whole of the money raised 
by lottery, for the sake of peace, agreed with 
the assembly that it should be equally divided 
between the college and the public. 

The time was now come when the president 
and his son, who, for above a year, had acquitted 
himself to universal acceptance, as tutor in the 
college, were to be parted from each other, 
never to meet again in the present world. Mr. 
Johnson embarked for England, November 8, 
1755, with a view of returning, in holy orders, 
to assist and succeed Mr. Standard, the super- 
annuated missionary at Westchester. He was 
received by the society, by the bishops Sherlock 
and Seeker, and all the Doctor's friends, with 
the greatest affection. They recommended him 
to the University of Oxford for the degree of 
Master of Arts; which was readily conferred 
upon him, in the month of May ; and soon after, 
to the University of Cambridge, where he was 
admitted ad eundem. He had received holy 
orders in March, and had preached several 
times, in and about London, with great reputa- 



96 LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 

tion. But soon after his return from Cambridge 
he was seized with the small-pox, which proved 
fatal to him on the 20th of June, 1756. He was 
buried in Mr. Morley's vault, in St. Mildred's, 
in the Poultry ; where there is a handsome 
marble monument erected to his memory. Thus, 
to the inexpressible grief and disappointment of 
his friends, and to the great loss of the Church 
in America, was this amiable and promising- 
youth cut off, in the bloom of life; making the 
seventh of those who, in their voyage to Eng- 
land for holy orders, from the northern colonies, 
had perished by sundry kinds of death ! 

In the mean time the governors of the college 
appointed to succeed him as tutor, Mr. Cutting 
who had been educated in Eton and the Univer- 
sity of Cambridge, and was extremely well 
qualified for the station ; and all things were 
going on prosperously at the college. Materials 
were collected with dispatch for the building; 
it having been agreed to place it in the skirts of 
the city, on a commodious lot of ground which 
was given by the vestry of Trinity Church. 
And on the 23d of August the first stone, with 
a proper inscription, was laid by Sir Charles 
Hardy ; ,on which occasion the president made 
a short, elegant Latin speech to the governors, 
to Sir Charles, and Mr. De Lanceythe lieutenant- 



LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 97 

governor, congratulating them on this happy 
event, which had succeeded almost beyond ex- 
pectation, and 

" Per varies casus, et tot discrimina rerum." 

But the president's joy was soon interrupted : 
for, on the 12th of September the news arrived 
of the death of his beloved son. The shock 
was indeed terrible; but God enabled him to 
bear it much better than he could have ex- 
pected. He received many affectionate letters 
of condolence from his friends in England on 
this melancholy event. Archbishop Seeker, in 
particular, expressed himself on the mournful 
occasion with much tenderness. 

It was no small addition to the president's 
affliction, that he was soon after (in the month 
of November) obliged to leave the city on ac- 
count of the small-pox. He retired with his 
family to Westchester, hoping to be useful 
there, in ministering to the people who were 
deprived of the most flattering expectations, by 
the death of his son. Here the Doctor was 
obliged to continue upwards of a year. He left 
about thirty pupils in the three classes ; and as 
Mr. Cutting was unable to take proper care of 
them all, the governors provided another tutor, 
whom they made at the same time Professor of 

H 



98 LIFE OF DR. JOHNSOlSr. 

Mathematics and Natural Philosophy. This 
was Mr. Treadwell, a young gentleman of a very 
excellent character, educated at Harvard Col- 
lege, and recommended by Professor Winthrop 
as eminently qualified for that station. Soon 
after this, an apparatus of good mathematical 
and philosophical instruments vv^as purchased ; 
"and the Rev. Dr. Bristowe, a worthy member 
of the society, lately deceased^ having by his 
last will bequeathed his library, of near one 
thousand five hundred volumes, to the society, 
to be sent to the college of New York, of which 
Dr. Johnson is president, or to such other place 
or places as the society shall direct^, the society 
directed those books to be sent and placed in 
this college of New York, in approbation of the 
generous donor's design*." 

The college, being thus provided for, went on 
successfully, notwithstanding the president's 
absence. He returned to New York in March, 
1758; and soon after met with another heavy 
affliction, in the death of Mrs. Johnson, with 
whom he had lived happily above thirty-two 
years. She died on the 1st of June, and was 
interred in the chancel of Trinity Church. 

On the 21st of the same month he held his 

* Seethe Abstract annexed to the Bishop of Ely's sermon. 



LIFK OF DR. JOHNSON. 99 

first commencement, when his first class, 
amounting to ten in number, including two from 
the college of New Jersey, commenced Bache- 
lors of Arts ; the degree of Master of Arts was 
conferred upon others, who had spent some 
time in the college, and were thought qualified 
for it; and several who had taken that degree 
in other colleges, were admitted ad eundem. 
The whole number of graduates amounted to 
upwards of twenty, and made a very respect- 
able appearance. 

The year following went on smoothly and 
agreeably. The different branches of instruc- 
tion were properly divided between the presi- 
dent and tutors; the former confining himself to 
Greek, logic, metaphysics, and ethics. At the 
same time the building was carried on with 
vigour. 

In 1759 was a small private commencement; 
and in October the Doctor was again forced to 
retire, by reason of the small-pox. He spent 
the winter with his son in Stratford ; but under 
great anxiety of mind on account of the college : 
for he left Mr. Tread well, the mathematical pro- 
fessor, in a declining state of health, which soon 
turned into a consumption, and put a period to 
his life early in the spring. 

About the same time, viz. in April 1760, the 
H 2 



100 LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 

college met with another heavy loss, in the 
death of Benjamin Nicoll, Esq. This gentle- 
man was the Doctor's son-in-law, as has been 
formerly mentioned : he practised the law in 
New York, and his abilities and integrity had 
justly caused him to be considered as at the 
head of his profession in that city. He was a 
governor of the college, and one of the most 
able, active, and spirited members of that body. 
He was to the president more than a son-in-law, 
having always treated him with all the respect 
and affection ]that are due to a real and most 
deserving parent. The whole city was in tears 
at his sudden and untimely death, at the age of 
forty-two ; the friends of the college seemed to be 
under a consternation ; but the blow was still 
more severe to Dr. Johnson himself. He was 
now almost ready to despond ; and when he re- 
turned to New York in May following, he found 
the scene so changed, that the city appeared to 
him like a kind of wilderness. 

In the preceding winter the Doctor, consider- 
ing his own advanced age, which must soon 
render him unable to undergo the fatigue that 
necessarily attended his station, and much af- 
fected at his being so often obliged to leave the 
college for fear of the small-pox, began to think 
in earnest of resigning his office, and of spend- 



LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 101 

ing the remainder of his days with his dear and 
only son at Stratford. He therefore thought it 
expedient, having obtained the consent of the 
governors, to write to his great patron, the 
Archbishop, who was by the charter placed at 
the head of the governors, requesting him to 
provide, as soon as possible, two gentlemen 
from the Universities, to come over and assist 
in the management of the college. He desired 
that one of them might be a good mathematical 
scholar, and that the other might be a proper 
person to succeed him as president, in a few 
years at farthest. 

On his return to New York he endeavoured 
to keep up his spirits as well as he could, by 
an indefatigable application to business, hoping 
te retrieve, in some measure, the damages the 
college had sustained during his absence. The 
building was so far completed, that he removed 
into it, and commenced house-keeping, a little 
above forty years after he had first done the 
same in the college at New Haven. And now 
he was to hold his third, commencement, which 
was the first from the college. On this occa- 
sion he addressed the governors in a short Latin 
speech, congratulating them on their first meet- 
ing together in the college-hall ; and from thence 
the procession went to St. George's Chapel, in 



102 LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 

which the academical exercises were performed, 
and the degrees were given. After the vaca- 
tion the classes came together in their proper 
places ; and the president and Mr. Cutting, for 
want of the assistance that had been applied for, 
were obliged to do double duty throughout the 
year. 

In May 1761, the Doctor held his fourth 
commencement, when his first Bachelors, with 
some others, took their Master's degree. It 
was about this time that he published a valuable 
little tract, entitled, A Tiemonstration of the Rea- 
sonableness, Usefulness, and great Duty of Prayer ; 
which he was earnestly desired to write, in 
answer to a paper that was handed about, at- 
tempting to prove that prayer, as it consists of 
petitions to the Almighty, is but an useless 
ceremony. As a sequel to this, he soon after 
published a Sermon on the Beauty of Holiness in 
the Worship of the Church of England, being a 
brief Rationale of the Liturgy. Thus, under his 
heaviest misfortunes, this faithful steward did 
not fofget the obligations he was under to im- 
prove his talents for the promotion of religion ; 
aiid during a course of the closest attention to 
the business of the college, he could find some 
time to employ more immediately in that ser- I 

vice. 



LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 103 

After this commencement the Doctor went to 
Stratford; and on the 18th of June he married 
Mrs. Beach, the widow of of his old friend and 
parishioner Mr. William Beach, before-men- 
tioned ; to whose daughter, Mr. Johnson, his 
son, had been married many years. She was a 
lady with whom the Doctor had been intimately 
acquainted, and whom he had greatly esteemed, 
for more than twenty years ; and he was ex- 
tremely haapy with her, after his marriage, so 
long as it pleased God to continue her. 

At the end of the vacation he returned to 
New York ; and soon after the governors of 
the college had an opportunity of providing a 
mathematical professor, the Archbishop having 
not been able to procure one. This was Mr. 
Robert Harper, a gentleman educated at the 
university of Glasgow. With this assistance the 
president went on much more easily and agree- 
ably than he had been able to do in the preced- 
ing year, and the several classes were better 
instructed. He held his fifth and last com- 
mencement in May 1762. 

Besides the sums raised by subscription, and 
the dividend of the lottery money, the college 
had at this time received a benefaction of five 
hundred pounds sterling from the Society for 
the Propagation of the Gospel, and an estate of 



104 LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 

about ten thousand pounds currency, bequeathed 
to it by Mr. Murray. But after erecting the 
building, and other necessary expences, its 
funds were low, and the governors were obliged 
to expend annually part of their capital. The 
president had often proposed to solicit for a 
collection in England, to augment the fund ; but 
it had been neglected. Hower, James Jay, 
M.D. who was about embarking for England, 
offering his service to promote there a collec- 
tion for the college, the governors were per- 
suaded by the president to accept the offer, 
and Dr. Jay was duly authorised to proceed, 
Mr. Alderman Trecothick, of London, and others, 
being joined with him in the commission. He 
was accordingly furnished with proper addresses 
from the governors, in behalf of the college, to the 
king, the archbishops, the two universities, and 
the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. 
When he arrived in England, he found that Dr. 
Smith, the provost of the college in Philadelphia, 
was there before him, engaged in the like de- 
sign in favour of his college. The archbishop 
who had most heartily espoused the cause of 
King's College, and was a great friend to the 
other, imagining that separate collections at the 
same time would injure each other, thought it 
would be best to join them together, ^nd to 



LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 105 

apply to the king for a brief to go through the 
kingdom in favour of both of them. This mea- 
sure was therefore adopted, and it was agreed 
to divide the profits of the collection equally 
between the two colleges. The king who had 
most graciously received the address from 
the governors of the college in New York, and 
had conferred the honor of knighthood on Dr. 
Jay, who was charged with the address, had 
given four hundred pounds for the use of that 
seminary ; which royal donation was an appro- 
priated benefaction, and therefore was a ne- 
cessary exception from the general collection. 
His Majesty was also pleased to give two hun- 
dred pounds for the college at Philadelphia, 
referring it to Mr. Penn as its proper patron. 
This joint collection produced to King's College 
near six thousand pounds sterling, clear of ex- 
penses. 

After waiting two years, a gentleman of 
Queen's College, Oxford, was recommended to 
the archbishop as a proper person to assist Dr. 
Johnson in the management of the college, and 
who was willing to come over for that purpose, 
on condition of succeeding him as president 
after two or three years. This was the Rev. 
Mr. Myles Cooper, of whom the archbishop 
greatly approved, recommending him as a per- 



106 LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 

son well qualified in all respects, excepting that 
he was but about twenty -five years of age. Mr. 
Cooper arrived in the autumn of 1762, and was 
extremely acceptable to the president, and was 
treated by him with the affection of a father. 
He was immediately appointed Professor of 
Moral Philosophy ; and in a short time, by his 
good conduct, he gave a more effectual recom- 
mendation of himself to the governors than he 
could possibly bring from other persons. The 
president had no thoughts of resigning imme- 
diately. His intention was to continue in the 
office at least till after the next commencement 
in May ; but the unexpected and sudden death 
of Mrs. Johnson determined him to relinquish 
his situation at an earlier period. 

Mrs. Johnson discovered during the course 
of her disorder, which was the small-pox, an 
exemplary patience, faith, and resignation, and 
expired on the 9th of February 1763. After 
this Dr. Johnson continued about a fortnight in 
the neighbourhood of New York, receiving the 
visits and condolence of his friends ; he then 
sent his resignation to the governors of the 
college, and went to Stratford there to finish 
the remainder of his days. 

The account of Dr. Johnson, for several years 
past, has been little else than the history of 



LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 107 

the college in New York. His relation to it as 
president now ceased ; but his affection for it 
continued with unabating vigour, and his en- 
deavours to promote its welfare and reputation 
were constantly exerted on all proper occasions, 
accompanied with his best wishes and prayers, 
to the end of his life. It may, therefore, be 
proper to mention some of the more remarkable 
events relating to King's College after this pe- 
riod, y 

Dr. Johnson's resignation was in February, 
1763 ; and previously to the commencement in 
May following Mr. Cooper was chosen presi- 
dent. He extremely wanted the assistance of 
another tutor or professor, and had engaged one 
of his friends in the University of Oxford to 
come over, in whom he would have been happy. 
But this gentleman died just as he was ready to 
embark for America. At length Dr. Clossy, a 
gentleman from Dublin, who had been educated 
in Trinity College, had taken the degree of 
Doctor of Physic, and was a Fellow of the Irish 
College of Physicians, came to New York. As 
he was soon discovered to be a good scholar, 
and fond of a college life, the governors ap- 
pointed him their Professor of Natural Philoso- 
phy, with such a salary and perquisites as he 
was willing to accept ; upon which he removed 



108 LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 

into the college, and entered upon duty. A 
grammar school, under the government of the 
college, was soon after established, and Mr. 
Gushing a gentleman from Boston, was sent 
for, and employed to take care of it. 

The several classes were now taught by Mr. 
Cooper, Mr. Harper, and Dr. Glossy; and 
under such able instructors they had peculiar 
advantages, such as but few seminaries of so 
young a standing, especially in America, have 
ever been able to boast of. The improvements 
of the students in general were, in some good 
measure, answerable to these advantages. The 
college, from year to year, produced a number 
of young gentlemen, as candidates for its pre- 
ferments, that would do honour to any academi- 
cal institution. In 1766 Dr. Johnson made his 
last visit to New York, at the time of the com- 
mencement ; and he had the unspeakable satis- 
faction of finding the college in a flourishing 
state, and of seeing the public exercises per- 
formed in a manner that far exceeded his ex- 
pectations. 

In his peaceful retreat at Stratford, Dr. John- 
son was once more happily situated, in the en- 
joyment of ease and leisure, surrounded by his 
old friends, most agreeably accommodated and 
provided for in his son's house, and accom- 



LIFE OF PR. JOHNSON. 109 

panied by his little grand children ; whose blan- 
dishments and caresses, in some measure, com- 
pensated for the late losses he had met with in 
his family. 

The year before the Doctor's return to Strat- 
ford, Mr. Win slow had requested from the 
society a removal from this mission, on account 
of the peculiar circumstances of his family ; and 
the mission of Braintree, in the neighbourhood 
of his friends in Boston, being offered him, he 
thought proper to accept it. This was some 
time after Dr. Johnson had fixed his residence 
with his son. On this occasion, the Doctor, inti- 
mating to the Society his inclination to resume 
the charge of his old mission, as he had been 
used to a life of action, and was desirous of 
finishing the remainder of his days in the imme- 
diate service of religion, the Society very gladly 
replaced him in it ; and he was again kindly re- 
ceived by the people at Stratford, in the charac- 
ter of their minister, in 1764, upwards of forty 
years after he had first entered into this relation 
to them. 

He now applied himself diligently to the 
duties of his mission, and thought and felt him- 
self as able to discharge them, at nearly the age 
of seventy, as he had been twenty or thirty 
years before. Indeed, he had always been re- 



110 LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON". 

markably healthy, havmg never suffered more 
than two slight fits of illness, and two or three 
turns of the fever and ague : but now the fine 
air of Stratford seemed to inspire him with 
more vigorous health than he had enjoyed for 
many years before. He was, however, subject 
to a soreness in his legs, which sometimes con- 
fined him to his room. This he looked upon as 
partly the consequence of a broken leg which 
he received in 1747, and as aggravated by his 
sedentary life, occasioned by the intenseness of 
his studies : and he often considered it as next 
to a miracle, that he had so much health with so 
little exercise. 

About this time his thoughts were much en- 
gaged on the subject of an American Episco- 
pate. The Rev. Mr. Ap thorp, missionary at 
Cambridge, near Boston, had published a small 
pamphlet in vindication of the conduct of the 
Society in establishing missions in New England, 
This publication was occasioned by some scur- 
rilous reflections on that venerable body, that 
were propagated through the country in the 
common newspapers. In answer to Mr. Apthorp, 
Dr. May hew, a man of distinguished abilities and 
assurance, came forward in a huge pamphlet of 
176 pages, treating Mr. Apthorp contemptu- 
ously, reflecting grossly on the Church of Eng- 

t 



LIFE or DR. JOHNSON^. HI 

land in general, charging the Society more par- 
ticularly with flagrant injustice in misapplying 
their money for the support of missionaries in 
New England, and raising an hideous outcry 
against the scheme of sending bishops to Ame- 
rica. This called forth from Dr. Johnson a short 
vindication of the Society, a paralytic tremour in 
the hand preventing him from writing largely. 
It was printed by way of appendix to a much 
fuller vindication, which has generally been 
ascribed to the Rev. Dr. Caner. At the same 
time was published in England, a candid and 
masterly reply to Dr. Mayhew, which is known 
to have been the work of Archbishop Seeker, 
and is worthy of his admirable pen. To both 
these pamphlets Dr. Mayhew rejoined. On 
this occasion he showed his abilities and address 
as a disputant, availing himself in the best 
manner of every little accidental advantage, 
and pushing his antagonists with vigour on every 
turn. He seems to have established some of his 
particular facts, but to have fallen much short 
of supporting his general charge ; and he was 
brought by his opponents to make some impor- 
tant concessions, particularly with regard to an 
American Episcopate. He had also been at- 
tacked in another pamphlet, entitled. Remarks on 
Dr. Mayhems incidental Reflections relative to the 



112 LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 

Church of Engla?id, which was printed at Ports- 
mouth, in New Hampshire ; and handled with 
much roughness by a gentleman of the colony 
of Rhode Island : but to these pieces he had not 
time to reply. In 1765 Mr. Apthorp published 
a very polite and candid Review of Dr. Mayhews 
Remarks, S^c, This was the last piece that ap- 
peared in the controversy; and it was Dr. 
Johnson's opinion that the Church, on the whole, 
had gained ground by it, as indeed it had always 
done in similar cases. 

What occasioned, at this time, so much viru- 
lence against the scheme for an American Epis- 
copate, was an apprehension that the peace 
being settled, the time drew near in which that 
subject would naturally command the attention 
of government; and it was well known that 
some endeavours were using to hasten so im- 
portant an event. The archbishop had, for 
many years, been determined to take the first 
favourable opportunity of urging it forward. 
On his first translation to the see of Canterbury, 
he wrote a long letter to Dr. Johnson, proposing 
a great number of questions to him, and desiring 
his answer, that he might thereby be informed 
of the whole state of the Church in America, 
and be enabled the better to serve it. He now 
endeavoured to promote the appointment of 



LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 113 

American bishops, seconded by the abilities of 
the Archbishop of York, the Bishop of London^ 
and others ; and made considerable progress in 
gaining the attention of the ministry. But they 
were as yet too much employed in settling the 
civil affairs of the colonies to give the case of the 
Church a proper examination. The confusions 
that soon after followed, in consequence of the 
stamp act, naturally caused this case to be post- 
poned. An address on this subject, from Dr. 
Johnson and the clergy of Connecticut, to Bi- 
shop Terrick, on his advancement to the see 
of London, introduced a correspondence with 
which his lordship was pleased to honour him. 

As the archbishop's answer to Dr. Mayhew's 
Observations, and Mr. Apthorp's Review, in which 
the true design of establishing bishops in Ame- 
rica was explained, had not been generally cir- 
culated through the colonies, and as it appeared 
that many of the Americans were still unac- 
quainted with the scheme, and therefore dis- 
affected towards it. Dr. Johnson thought it 
highly expedient that a pamphlet should be 
written professedly on the subject, for the in- 
formation of all parties, showing that the epis- 
copate proposed was of such a nature as not to 
interfere with the civil or religious rights of 
people of any rank or denomination whatever. 



114 LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 

and representing the grounds on whieh this 
claim of the Church was founded. The Doctor 
himself would have been the proper person to 
execute his own proposal ; but he would not 
attempt it, as he was unable to guide his pen 
without extreme difficulty. He therefore de- 
sired one of his friends, with whom he had ex- 
changed many letters on the subject, and of 
whose qualifications for the service he had too 
favourable an opinion, to open the case of the 
Church of England in the colonies, to explain 
the great disadvantages and hardships it is 
under for want of enjoying its own institutions, 
and to show that the enjoyment of them in the 
manner proposed, would afford no just cause of 
jealousy or uneasiness to people of other persua- 
sions. In compliance with this request, and 
with the appointment of the clergy of New 
York and New Jersy, met in convention, the 
business was at length undertaken, and an Ap- 
peal to the Public, in behalf of the Church of Eng- 
land in America, was published in 1767*. Of 
this I shall say no more than that although it 
seemed to be satisfactory to all parties at first, 

* The Appeal, the Appeal defended, and the Appeal further 
defended, were all written by Dr. Chandler, the writer of this 
memoir. These tracts contain much useful information on the 
general subject of episcopacy. Ed. 



LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON". 115 

yet afterwards it was repeatedly attacked in 
}3amphlets and periodical papers, and as often 
defended. In the course of the contest every 
argument that had been oifered by the author 
of the Appeal, in favour of the episcopate, was, 
in the opinion of those who are well-wishers to 
the Church, effectually supported, and every 
material objection against it clearly refuted. 

A considerable part of Dr. Johnson's time, in 
his agreeable retreat at Stratford, was taken up 
in corresponding with his distant friends ; but 
much of it, however, was employed in review- 
ing his former studies in almost all the branches 
of learning. He re-examined, v/ith particular 
care, the several conclusions he had made in all 
the former stages of his life ; and read over 
again, with much pleasure, the best books with 
which he had been acquainted thirty, forty, 
and even fifty years before ; especially, several 
of the most valuable tracts of the fathers and 
the ancient philosophers, not neglecting the 
best productions of the moderns, who had made 
the study of nature subservient to religion. 

About this time Dr. Home (then president of 
Magdalen College, Oxford *) presented him with 
a copy of Jones's t Principles of Natural Philo- 

* Afterwards Bishop of Norwich. Ed. 
t Rev. WilHaiT) Jones, Minister of Nayland. Ed. 
I 2 



116 LIVE OF DR. JOHNSON. 

sophy ; in which he endeavours to prove, by 
many experiments, and by passages from the 
ancients, the truth of Mr. Hutchinson's Scrip- 
ture Philosophy. With this book, and with 
Spearman's Inquiry after Philosophy and Theo- 
logy, he was greatly delighted. *' It is remark- 
able," says Dr. Johnson, "^that Bishop Berkeley, 
in Ireland ; Mr. Hutchinson, in England ; and 
the Abbe Pluche, in France ; the greatest men 
of the age, without any communication with 
each other, should, at the same time, though by 
different media, come into the same conclusion, 
viz. that the Holy Scriptures teach the only true 
system of natural philosophy, as well as the 
only true religion; and that Dr. Franklin, in 
America, should, at the same time, without any 
design, by his electrical experiments, greatly 
confirm it." How far this curious observation 
may be justly founded, is submitted to the judg- 
ment of the learned reader. 

Dr. Johnson being anxious that the introduc- 
tory parts of the education of his little grand- 
sons, William and Charles, might be made as 
easy to them as possible, spent some time in 
composing a small English Grammar for their 
use, and in revising his Catechism, published 
many years before ; and that, at the same time, 
he might be useful to others, he published them 



LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 117 

both together in 1765. He also revised, cor- 
rected, and much improved his Logic and Ethics, 
with the same view. But what he chiefly la- 
boured and delighted in, in this happy interim 
of health and leisure, was the study of the Holy 
Scriptures in their sacred originals, and especi- 
ally the Hebrew language, in which those holy 
oracles, from the beginning to the time of our 
Saviour's manifestation, were delivered. In sub- 
serviency to this study, he read several volumes 
of Mr. Hutchinson's works over again, with Dr. 
Sharp's writings against them, and the defences 
of them by Messrs. Bate, Spearman. Holloway, 
Hodges, Moody, Catcot, Home, &c. He was 
glad to see so good a temper in most of his de- 
fenders ; yet he thought there was rather too 
much of a tendency towards extremes in some 
things on both sides. But, upon the whole, he 
approved of Mr. Hutchinson's scheme in gene- 
ral, and especially with regard to the four 
points heretofore mentioned. ^ 

Dr. Johnson had, for many years, entertained 
a strong opinion, that, "as the Hebrew was 
the first language taught by God himself to 
mankind, and the mother of all languages and 
eloquence, it would be proper to begin a learned 
education with that language, which lends to all 



118 LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON, 

other languages, and borrows from none*." 
Being therefore desirous of promoting the study 

* The learned Dr. Chapman, in his Miscellaneous Tracts, 
has an elaborate dissertation, in which he proves that the 
greatest critics and philosophers in general, have been of a 
different opinion, with regard to the derivation of all languages 
from the ancient Hebrew. He shows, in particular, that 
Buxtorf, Bishop Walton, Bochart, Gerard, Vossius, the two 
Scaligers, Duret, Daniel Heinsius, Selden, Huet, Vitringa, 
Perizonius, Morin, and Father Calmet, fully believed that some 
languages owe their origin to the miraculous confusion of 
Babel ; and that it was the opinion of the ablest in this list of 
critics, that the Greek, Latin, Teutonic, and Sclavonic, are 
matrices, or mother languages, and have no affinity with one 
another. In tracing the rise of ancient languages, there is so 
little light to direct us, and fancy is so apt to mislead us, that 
the most prudent way is not to be hasty in forming opinions, 
nor dogmatical in asserting them. There is great propriety in 
the following observation, made by the accurate authors of the 
ancient Universal History. " Some learned men have endea- 
voured to derive all languages in general from the Hebrew, 
which they imagine to be the parent of all others. That they 
should succeed very well in finding a great conformity between 
that and the other oriental tongues is no wonder, since they 
are manifestly sprung from one common original ; though it 
be difficult, if not impossible, to distinguish the mother from 
the daughters. That they have also given tolerable satisfac- 
tion in deducing from the same tongue several words not only 
in the Greek and Latin, but in some other European languages, 
is not matter of such surprise, considering the great inter- 
course several nations of our continent had with the Phceni- 



LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 119 

of the Hebrew scriptures in the colonies, he set 
himself down to compose a Hebrew Grammar, 

cians, whose mother tongue was the Hebrew. But when these 
writers venture out of their depth, and pretend to deduce the 
more remote languages from the same fountain, they only shew 
their ignorance, and make themselves ridiculous to all who 
have but a moderate skill in those tongues ; for the proof of 
which we could produce a multitude of examples." Univers. 
Hist. B. I. c. ii. sect. 5. The learned Saurin, in his Disserta- 
tion on this subject, concludes, " that the Chaldean, Syrian, or 
Aramean tongue, was that which Heber and his discendants 
spake ; that Abraham learned the language of Canaan, and 
transmitted the same to his posterity ; that this language is 
the true Hebrew, which is called in scripture the language of 
Canaan. But nothing proves that the Chaldean language, 
spoken by Heber's family, was that only tongue spoken before 
the building of the tower of Babel ; perhaps that only tongue 
was then confounded, and not continued since in any one na- 
tion or family." The Jews, in defending the antiquity of their 
own language, have extravagantly asserted, that it was created 
immediately by God ; that it is the only language which is un- 
derstood by the angels of heaven ; that in this language alone 
will our prayers be heard and accepted ; that after the resur- 
rection the blessed will converse together in this language, &c. 
&c. These assertions are more excusable in the mouth of a 
Jew than in that of a Christian : for it is a kind of vanity that 
is natural to mankind, " to attribute a great antiquity to their 
own tongue ; insomuch that an author in Friesland, viz. Goro- 
pius Becanus, who lived under the Emperor Charles V. thought 
he honoured his country very much by deriving the Hebrew 
words from Dutch or Teutonick; for instance, he says that 
Adam comes from Haat-dam, a hater of heaps ; Abel, from 



120 LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 

to go side by side with his English Grammar 
above-mentioned ; as there appeared to him to 
be a great resemblance in the grammatical 
structure of the two languages. While he was 
engaged in this work, and had proceeded about 
half way through it, he met with a new Hebrew 
Lexicon, by Mr. Parkhurst; in which that writer 
strenuously pleads for the same opinion and 
practice. This greatly animated him during the 
rest of his progress ; and the work was com- 
pleted, and printed in London, by Faden, in 
1767. A second edition of it, corrected and 
much amended, was published in 1771, by the 
same bookseller, with this title : An English and 
Hebrew Grammar, being the first short Rudiments 
of those two Languages, taught together. 
V The Doctor was greatly pleased with the 
method and illustrations of Parkhurst's Hebrew 
Le,vicon, and with several other books that he 
had not seen till about the same time ; particu- 
larly with the Prelections of Dr. Lowth, the 
learned and excellent Bishop of Oxford*, 
on the Hebrew poetry. This admirable work, 

Haat-belg, a hater of war ; Cain, from Quaadt-ende, an evil 
end, &c." See Saurin, ut. sup. This reminds one of Swift's 
humourous attempt to prove, that the Hebrew, Greek, and 
Latin tongues were derived from the present English. 
* Afterwards Bishop of London. 



LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 121 

which is highly celebrated throughout the 
learned world, does, in the opinion of com- 
petent judges, reflect more light upon the va- 
rious graces, as well as the sublimity, of diction 
in the sacred writings of the Old Testament, 
than any other work that has ever been pub- 
lished. 

Dr. Johnson continued, through the remain- 
der of his life, to fill up his time in a manner 
worthy of his station and character. He pur- 
sued his studies with the same eagerness that 
animated his younger years. He kept up his 
correspondence with all his European friends 
that were still living, and was very punctual 
and faithful in answering their expectations in 
this way. His difficulty in writing occasioned 
him not to be so exact with his friends in 
America, who were better acquainted with his 
case, and could more easily excuse him. Yet, 
when any thing of real consequence was depend- 
ing, he consulted not his own ease, but would 
write as fully and particularly to them as the 
subject required. 

At the same time he was attentive to the 
business of his mission. He commonly read 
prayers and preached twice on every Sunday, 
and performed the ordinary parochial duties. 
But at length the disorder in his legs increased 



122 LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 

upon him, and began to interrupt him in the 
course of this service. Therefore, in December, 
1767, he procured Mr. Tyler, then a candidate 
for holy orders, to assist him, by reading- 
prayers and a sermon to the congregation, 
when he should be unable to attend himself. 
Soon after, Mr. Kneeland, already in holy 
orders, happening occasionally to preach in 
Stratford, the congregation unanimously agreed 
in choosing him an assistant to Dr. Johnson, 
and his successor when his place should become 
vacant. 

The doctor was impatiently desirous of mak- 
ing trial, upon his little grandsons, of his 
scheme for teaching Hebrew. He began with 
the elder very early, and he writes of him, while 
he was only in the sixth year of his age, that 
the child was then "making a rapid progress 
in Hebrew." About the same time, viz. on the 
first of October 1771, his son. Dr. William 
Samuel Johnson, who went to England as agent 
extraordinary for the colony, returned after an 
absence of near five years. This was an event 
for which he had long wished and prayed ; but 
having been disappointed from year to year, he 
almost despaired of ever seeing it. His measure 
of worldly happiness seemed now to be filled. 
In all his letters from this time, and frequently 



LIFE OF DK. JOHNSON. 123 

in his common conversation, he spoke of himself 
as the happiest man upon earth, and shewed 
that his mind was impressed with the deepest 
sense of his obligations to Divine Providence on 
that account. 

However this occasioned no remissness in 
the pursuit, no disrelish to the enjoyment, of a 
happiness very different from what this world af- 
fords. He had fixed his heart upon, and never 
lost sight of, the great end of religion. *' The 
mark for the prize of the high calling of God in 
Christ Jesus" he attentively eyed, pressing to- 
wards it ; and he could plainly preceive, that 
he now lessened its distance very fast. On the 
morning of January 6, 1772, the most glorious 
Epiphany he ever beheld, he conversed with 
his family on the subject of his own death, with 
the greatest cheerfulness and serenity. Among 
other things he said, " that although he seemed 
to be but little indisposed, yet he found his 
strength failing him ; that he must soon leave 
them, but he was going home" — adding such 
exhortations as were suitable to the subject of 
his discourse. He expressed his wishes, that he 
'* might resemble in the manner of his death his 
good friend Bishop Berkeley, whom he had 
greatly loved, and whose exit he had ever 
esteemed happy." Heaven granted his wish ! 



124 LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 

For very soon after he had uttered these words, 
like the good bishop, he instantaneously expired 
in his chair, without the least struggle or groan. 
So that he may rather be said to have been 
changed, or translated, than to have died ; for he 
felt none of the agonies of death ; he underwent 
no struggle that was sufficient to discompose the 
pleasing serenity of his countenance. 

Two days after, his remains were interred in 
the chancel of Christ Church, Stratford ; where 
a handsome monument has been erected to his 
memory, with the following inscription, com- 
posed by a friend, who greatly loved and re- 
spected him. 

M.S. 

Samuelis Johnson, D. D. 

Colkgii Regalis, Novi Eboraci, 

PrcBsidis primi, 

Et hujus Ecciesice nuper Recioris, 

Natus die 14to Octob. 1696, 

Obiit 6to. Jan. 1772. 

If decent dignity, and modest mien, 

The cheerful heart, and countenance serene ; 

If pure religion, and unsullied truth, 

His age's solace, and his search in youth ; 

If piety, in all the paths he trod, 

Still rising vig'rous to his Lord and God ; 



LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 125 

If charity, through all the race he ran, 
Still wishing well, and doing good to man ; 
If learning, free from pedantry and pride, — 
If faith and virtue, walking side by side ; 
If well to mark his being's aim and end, — 
To shine, through life, a husband, father, friend ; 
If these ambition in thy soul can raise. 
Excite thy reverence, or demand thy praise ; 
Reader — ere yet thou quit this earthly scene, 
Revere his name, and be what he has been. 

Myles Cooper. 

All the clergy from the neighbouring towns 
attended his funeral. A sermon suitable to the 
occasion, was preached by the Rev. Mr. Leaming, 
as Mr. Beach, to whom that office had been 
assigned, was unable to perform it for want of 
health. The sermon which this latter gentle- 
man had prepared was, however, preached at 
Stratford shortly after, and published at the re- 
quest of the audience. 

As to Dr. Johnson's person, he was rather tall, 
and, in the latter part of his life, considerably 
corpulent. There was something in his coun- 
tenance that was pleasing and familiar, and that 
indicated the benevolence of his heart ; and yet, 
at the same time, it was majestic and com- 
manded respect. He had a ruddiness of com- 
plexion, which was the effect of natural consti- 
tution, and was sometimes farther brightened 



126 LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 

by a peculiar briskness in the circulation of his 
spirits, brought on by the exercise of the bene- 
volent affections. 

He was happy in an original calmness and 
sweetness of temper, that was seldom discom- 
posed, and never soured, by the common acci- 
dents of life. If an injury was, in his opinion, 
designedly done him, he was much more prone 
to pity the injurious person than to resent the 
action. But indeed he was seldom injured, ex- 
cept in his public character ; for those that knew 
him generally loved and revered him, and were 
desirous of recommending themselves to him by 
a course of obliging and respectful behaviour. 
What was most apt to excite his indignation, 
was the licentiousness of an unprincipled age, 
with respect both to religion and government. 
The same good temper that rendered him 
amiable in private life, marked all his proceed- 
ings of a public nature, and may be discovered, 
where such a thing is not often expected, in his 
controversial writings. These he conducted with 
decency and candour ; and the greatest personal 
provocations could not kindle him into that 
wrath of man, which, as St. James tells us, and 
as experience may convince us, worketh not the 
righteousness of God. 

Benevolence was always a shining part of Dr, 



LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 127 

Johnson's character. This discovered itself in 
all companies, and on all occasions. It was not 
confined to his friends, or to people of one deno- 
nination only, but extended to the whole human 
race without exception, and even to the brutal 
part of the creation. He had an affection for 
every thing that God has made, according to its 
nature and qualities ; and he took an exquisite 
pleasure in communicating or increasing happi- 
ness, whenever and wherever he had an oppor- 
tunity. Had it been in his power, he would 
have made every human creature completely 
happy ; and as far as it was in his power, he 
never failed of doing so in the most effectual 
manner. 

He scarcely ever suffered a day to pass with- 
out doing to others some good offices, relating 
to their temporal or spiritual affairs ; with re- 
gard to the former, either relieving or assisting, 
or advising them ; and with regard to the latter, 
instructing, or exhorting, or encouraging them, 
as the cases required. These benevolent em- 
ployments were his chief relaxations from study, 
or from public business; and he always returned 
from them more vigorous than if he had in- 
dulged himself in any vain or useless amuse- 
ments. 

His desire and study was to do all possible 



128 LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 

good to his fellow creatures in general; yet, 
without breaking in upon this plan, some were 
the objects of his peculiar attention. This may 
justly be said of the younger clergy, and of can- 
didates for holy orders, who were always sure 
to experience in him the kindness of a father. 
His seniority, and his superior influence, natu- 
rally placed him at the head of the Episcopal 
clergy in Connecticut, and gave him frequent 
opportunities of doing them good offices ; which 
he performed with as much pleasure to himself 
as they produced to others. For near fifty years 
there was not, I believe, a single candidate for 
holy orders in the colony who did not apply to 
him for his advice and direction, or who ven- 
tured to go to Europe without his recommenda- 
tion, or who did not owe his success, in a great 
measure, to his patronage. To those of them 
who needed pecuniary assistance for the voyage 
to England, he gave generously and cheerfully, 
in proportion to his abilities. After their return, 
they commonly waited upon him for his further 
direction, both with regard to their studies and 
the manner of performing clerical and parochial 
duties. His own improvements as a scholar, as 
a divine, and as a clergyman, abundantly quali- 
fied him for this direction ; and no one ever fol- 
lowed it without finding his account in doing so. 



LIFK OF DR. JOHNSOK. 129 

Besides giving them suitable and friendly advice, 
it v^^as his practice to recommend, and then lend 
to them the most useful books, of w^hich he had 
a large and valuable collection. 

I have here spoken of Dr. Johnson as being 
at the head of the clergy in Connecticut. That 
he was really so in an equitable sense, must have 
appeared from the course of this history ; and 
that the clergy themselves wished him to be so 
in a legal sense, is evident from their unanimous 
request, first to Dr. Gibson, and afterwards to 
Dr. Sherlock, that he might be appointed the 
Bishop of London's Commissary, with jurisdic- 
tion over them. In answer to the first applica- 
tion, Bishop Gibson says of the appointment 
requested, in a letter to Dr. Johnson of Sep- 
tember 6, 1743 : ** This, I think, would be right, 
or at least deserve consideration, if a new com- 
mission were to be granted upon the death or 
resignation of Mr. Price ; but I care not to re- 
voke any part of what I have granted, without 
his consent. In the mean time you will com- 
municate this to your neighbouring clergy, 
whom, together with yourself, I commend to 
the divine protection." Bishop Sherlock's an- 
swer to the like application, is in a letter to the 
Doctor, dated January 23, 1749. " I received" 
says his Lordship, " a letter from the clergy of 

K 



130 LIFE OF DR» JOHKSON, 

Connecticut, dated the 5th of September last, 
1 agree with the clergy, that it is highly proper 
and convenient to have a distinct Commissary 
for that colony ; and it is a great satisfaction 
to me to find that they have so worthy a person 
as yourself amongst them, under whose care 
and inspection they unanimously desire to be 
placed. I shall make no difficulty of sending 
a commission accordingly to you, as soon as 
I take a proper authority from the king, which 
I have hitherto delayed, in hopes of seeing 
another and better settlement of ecclesiastical 
affairs in the country. It will not now be long 
before 1 shall be able to write more distinctly." 
Accordingly, in September following, he wrote 
again to Dr. Johnson, enclosing a copy of his 
circular letter to the late Bishop of London's 
Commissaries, in which he says, " I have been 
far from neglecting the affairs of your churches, 
and have been soliciting the establishment of 
one or two bishops to reside in proper parts of 
the plantations, and to have the conduct and 
direction of the whole. I am sensible for my- 
self, that I am capable of doing but little service 
to those distant churches, and I am persuaded 
that no bishop residing in England ought to 
have, or willingly to undertake, the province. 
As soon as I came to the see of London, I pre- 



LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 131 

sented a memorial to the king on this subject, 
which he referred to his principal officers of 
state to be considered." We see here the only- 
reason why Dr. Johnson was not appointed the 
Bishop of London's Commissary — because Dr. 
Sherlock took not a proper authority from the 
king to appoint one ; and that excellent prelate 
refused to take a patent from the crown for the 
exercise of jurisdiction in the plantations, be- 
cause he was persuaded that no bishop residing 
in England was able to do justice to the Church 
in the American colonies, or ought to have the 
charge of it. His Lordship continued in this 
opinion, and never was properly vested with 
ecclesiastical jurisdiction over the colonies. 
However, he consented till better provision could 
be made, to ordain our candidates, and to take 
such care of the interests of our Church as he 
could, consistently with the inspection and 
government of his own large diocese at home. 
But with regard to America, he says, in ano- 
ther letter of April 21, 1752, " I think myself at 
present in a very bad situation : bishop of 
a vast country, without power, or influence, or 
any means of promoting true religion : seques- 
tered from the people over whom I have the care, 
and must never hope to see. I should be tempt- 
ed to throw off all this care quite, were it not 

K 2 



132 LIFE OF DR. JOtfKSOK. 

for the sake of preserving even the appearance 
of an Episcopal Church in the plantations." 

As another branch of Dr. Johnson's benevo- 
lence, it may be proper to mention his remark- 
able hospitality. For the greater part of his 
life he kept what may be called a public table. 
This was at all times liberally furnished, but 
without superfluity or needless expense. To say 
nothing of his parishioners and neighbours, the 
poorest of whom were frequently fed at his 
table, the church people belonging to all the 
adjacent towns thought it their duty, when they 
came to Stratford, if their business would admit 
of it, to wait upon him ; and they were always 
hospitably received and entertained by him. 
For a number of years after he entered upon 
his mission, while there was no other clergy- 
man in the colony, at Christmas and the other 
great festivals, his house was thronged for se- 
veral days together, with the pious members 
of the Church from the neighbouring towns, 
who came to Stratford to spend some part of 
those solemn seasons, under the advantages of 
his public and private ministrations. On such 
occasions every bed was crowded : and some- 
times the number of these guests was so large, 
that several of them were obliged to take up 
their lodgings on the floor. As he lived on the 
great road from Boston to New York, and had 



LIFE Of DR. JOHNSOIvr. 133 

a large acquaintance in both places, as well as 
throughout the country in general, many gen- 
tlemen that travelled contrived their journies 
so as to make a stop at Stratford, in order to 
spend some time with this eminent clergyman. 
He always received them not only with polite- 
ness, but in the most agreeable and friendly 
manner : and his conversation was such, that 
they could not but be pleased with it, and it 
was their own fault if they were not the wiser 
and better for it. 

His conversation was enlivened and rendered 
more pleasing by the natural cheerfulness of his 
disposition. He was commonly the most cheer- 
ful man in company, and frequently said the 
sprightliest things that were said in it. Yet he 
was careful to keep up the dignity of his charac- 
ter ; and one might discover in him the scholar, 
the gentleman, the clergyman, and the pious 
Christian, in his freest and most cheerful dis- 
course. He always endeavoured to introduce 
what might be useful and improving, as well as 
what might be agreeable in conversation ; and 
his friends in general, I believe, may say, what 
one of them, who was acquainted with him for 
fifty-five years, and for the greater part of that 
time enjoyed his most intimate friendship, has 
publicly declared, in the following words : — 
" "Without any hyperbole, I may say it, I know 



134 LIFE OF DR. JOHNSOlSr. 

not that I ever conversed vv^ith him, without 
finding myself afterwards the better for it*." 

What rendered his conversation peculiarly- 
improving, as well as agreeable, v/as his know- 
ledge of the affairs of the world, and his general 
acquaintance with all the branches of learning. 
He was not only a good classical scholar, but 
well versed in all the liberal arts and sciences. 
He knew, and could explain with precision, their 
respective boundaries and limits, their connec- 
tion with each other, and in what manner they 
are conducive to the happiness of man. The 
study of the belles lettres and polite literature 
was his constant and favourite amusement ; and 
scarcely any thing of this kind, of any conse- 
quence, was published in the English language 
in his time, but what he read. But theology, 
including the critical study of the holy Scrip- 
tures in their original languages, was his main 
literary employment; and, in subserviency to 
it, history, both ancient and modern, ecclesias- 
tical and civil, engaged no small share of his 
time. Heaven had blessed him with a quick 
perception, and with a sound judgment; and by 
an almost incredible application of these powers, 
through a long life, he became what a very able 

* Mr. Beach, in his Funeral Sermon , p. 14. 



LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 13^5 

and competent judge* asserts him to have been, 
viz. " The most excellent scholar, and the most 
accomplished divine, that this colony (Con- 
necticut) ever had to glory in." And had his 
memory been equal to his judgment, or to his 
application, he would perhaps have been but 
little inferior to the most celebrated scholars and 
divines in Europe, 

And here I beg leave to recommend the eX' 
ample of his unwearied diligence, in the pro- 
secution of his studies, to the imitation of the 
clergy, especially of the younger clergy. With 
an ordinary application, Dr. Johnson would have 
been respectable for his literary improvements, 
and useful in his station. But the pitch of emi- 
nence which he gained, and the distinguished 
degree of usefulness which he acquired, were 
the effects of a strenuous exertion of all his facul- 
ties, and of his carefully taking the advantage of 
all the opportunities that his situation afforded 
for increasing the stock of his knowledge. To 
exert himself in this manner was his determined 
resolution ; and in pursuance of it, he never 
knew time to lie heavy upon his hands. Every 
day appeared to him too short for the business 
and duties it required ; and therefore he consi- 
dered himself as indispensably bound to husband 

* Mr. Beach, ut supra. 



13j life of dr. JOHNSON. 

it in a frugal manner. He seldom lost an hour 
through carelessness, and never through indo- 
lence ; and he always blamed himself if he found, 
upon reflection, that he had not improved every 
hour to the best advantage. 

Such diligence in the use of our time, for the 
purpose of intellectual improvement, is undoubt- 
edly, in some degree, the duty of all men, of 
whatever station or character ; as it enlarges the 
mind, and consequently increases a man's ability 
to do good, as well as renders him capable of a 
higher degree of happiness, both here and here- 
after. But this general duty is more immedi- 
ately incumbent on the clergy, on a further 
account, as, in the neglect of it, they can never 
be sufficient for those things which God and 
man have a right to expect from them, in the 
discharge of their function. He that undertakes 
to instruct others ought not to be a novice him- 
self. The clergyman who has a tolerable concep- 
tion of the importance and dignity of the sa- 
cerdotal office, and of the difficulties attending a 
due execution of it (and he that has not, would 
do well to read what St. Jerom, St. Chrysostome, 
St. Basil, and Erasmus have said on the subject, 
or at least some of the many excellent pieces 
relating to it, that have been written in our own 
language), must see that he has not a moment to 
los^ or trifle away ; but, on the other hand, that 



LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 137 

he ought to exert all his powers with unremitting 
application, and pray for the assistance of heaven 
to prosper his endeavours, that he may be ena- 
bled to acquit himself with honour in that ha- 
zardous station in which he is placed. He that 
thinks himself thoroughly qualified, in point of 
learning, for every part of a clergyman's duty, 
which frequently requires him, among other 
things, to explain the sublime doctrines of the 
Christian religion, and sometimes to defend its 
truth and authority against the various tribes of 
its opposers, betrays his unfitness for it by that 
very presumption ; and he that is conscious of 
his own deficiency, it is to be hoped, will endea- 
vour to repair it as effectually and as speedily as 
possible. Every clergyman should be at least 
well versed in theology, both speculative and 
practical ; and the life of a divine, like that of 
a Christian, ought to be progressive, with regard 
to its proper improvements, continually advanc- 
ing towards a higher degree of perfection, and 
shining more and more unto the perfect day. 

A late illustrious and excellent prelate, than 
whom none was better able to judge of a clergy- 
man's duty, and whose advice ought to have 
peculiar weight with the American clergy, in 
speaking upon this subject, says, " Giving in- 
struction requires knowledge ; and, therefore, 
as a competent degree of it is justly expected 



138 LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 

of persons before they enter into holy orders ; 
so, when they enter, the care of making a con- 
tinual progress in it is solemnly promised by 
them, and covenanted for with them. What 
may be a very good beginning, is by no means 
a sufficient stock to go on with ; and even that 
will lessen, if no pains be taken to increase it. 
Continued application is then a duty of im- 
portance. Persons of lower abilities and at- 
tainments are in danger, without it, of being 
useless and despised; and they who set out 
with greater advantages, are bound to endea- 
vour at doing, in proportion, greater service to 
the Church of God. Without exception, there^ 
fore all who are engaged in so serious an em- 
ployment as ours, if they have any regard 
either to their duty or character must take 
care not to be more remarkable for their diver- 
sions than their studies, nor indolently to trifle 
their time away, instead of employing it to good 
purposes. And though most parts of learning 
will be useful to us, and all parts ornamental ; 
yet we must be sure to remember, what we 
have been solemnly admonished of, that no 
attention to any thing else ought ever to draw 
us away from the pursuit of such knowledge 
as is properly theological. For to excel in 
other things, and be deficient in that, cannot 
but cast a grievous reflection either on us for 



LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 139 

not studying what we profess, or on our pro- 
fession, as having little in it worth studying. 
Our principal business, therefore, must be, to 
obtain a thorough acquaintance with the Chris- 
tian faith ; first the grounds, then the doctrines 
of it*." 

Dr. Johnson's industry in the pursuit of 
knowledge, uncommon as it was, was not 
greater, nor more remarkable, than his love of 
truth. Wherever truth appeared to lead, he 
thought it his duty to follow, without regarding 
the inconveniences that might be the conse- 
quence. And, therefore, soon after he was able 
to judge for himself, we find him laying aside 
the prejudices of his education, one after ano- 
ther ; giving up opinions which he had received 
as properly established ; and embracing such 
principles as, on a careful examination, appeared 
to be true, however contrary to his former judg- 
ment, or to the received doctrines of his country. 
And this was without any appearance of pride, 
or any affectation of singularity ; for his whole 
conduct discovered that he departed from the 
provincial standard of orthodoxy with reluc- 
tance. His own penetration made an early dis- 

* See Dr. Seeker's first charge to the clergy of his diocese, 
when Bishop of Oxford, p* 14. 



140 LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 

covery of defects in the theological and philoso- 
phical systems that had been taught him ; and 
as soon as he had an opportunity of bringing 
them to a fair examination^ by the assistance of 
books, or the conversation of those who dared 
to think for themselves, he acted with the great- 
est impartiality and candour; critically examin- 
ing the proofs that could be alleged on both 
sides ; balancing the difficulties and objections 
that arose from different views of the doctrine 
in question; and endeavouring to regulate his 
assent by the degree of preponderating evidence. 
It was in this manner that he gradually ex- 
changed the principles of the old philosophy for 
those of the Newtonian system ; that he quitted 
the rigid predestinarian notions for those which 
appeared to be more rational and scriptural 
doctrines ; and that he conformed to the Church 
of England while he felt the force of many 
worldly motives to the contrary. 

The same impartiality which distinguished 
his first inquiries attended him throughout all 
the stages of his life. He was always willing to 
re-examine any principles he had adopted ; and 
when any controversies were raised, or any new 
doctrines were asserted, of the least apparent 
importance, he gave a candid attention to all 
that was offered by the contending parties. 



LIFE OF DR. JOIINSOX. 141 

Although the northern American colonies 
have never been troubled with the controversy 
between Protestants and Papists, as the latter 
have had no advocates among us ; yet the Doc- 
tor was well acquainted with the merits of the 
cause, being a good master of literary and eccle- 
siastical history, and having read the works of 
Jewel, Laud, Bramhall, Chillingworth, and all 
our best writers on one side, and some consider- 
able pieces on the other. But as to the two great 
standing disputes, between Christians and Deists, 
as the latter have been pleased to call them- 
selves, and between churchmen and dissenters, 
we have been more nearly concerned in them ; 
and he made it a rule to read all that was pub- 
lished on both sides, either in England or Ame- 
rica. It is true, no writers on the side of infi- 
delity, worthy of any notice, have appeared in 
the colonies; but we have had large importa- 
tions of infidel books, and much mischief has 
been done by the circulation of them. It there- 
fore as greatly concerns the American clergy to 
study the controversy, as if the writers them- 
selves had been the growth of our own soil. In 
this branch of study. Dr. Johnson was eminent. 
There is hardly a book quoted in Dr. Leland's 
Viav of the Deistical Writers with which he was 
unacquainted; and, before that valuable work 



142 LIFE OF DR, JOHNSON. 

was published, I remember to have heard him, 
in conversation, give an account of the various 
attacks upon revelation, and of the defences 
which they occasioned, similar to that given by 
that excellent writer. Nor was he less atten- 
tive to what appeared in the other controversy, 
which relates to matters of much inferior im- 
portance, as it was his lot more than once to be 
personally engaged in it. All this attention was 
owing to his natural love of truth and justice, 
and not to any diffidence of his own religious 
principles ; for he had firmly established all of 
them in the early part of his life, and none of 
them were ever shaken after his examination of 
the Trinitarian disputes, about the year 1726. 

Dr. Johnson's great fondness for his studies 
was under due regulation, and was never suf- 
fered to encroach upon the more active duties 
of his station, whether of a public or private na- 
ture. With regard to preaching, he was careful 
to provide for the instruction and edification of 
his people, in the best manner that he could, 
according to his judgment. 

He seldom, if ever, ventured to preach ex- 
tempore*, notwithstanding the largeness of his 

* Although, in a general way, extempore harangues are 
more pleasing to the populace than the best discourses that 
can be penned, if not recited memoriter ; yet there have been 



LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 143 

store of religious knowledge, and his great faci- 
lity of expressing himself. He chose rather that 

some instances, in which sermons that have been written, and 
read to the congregation, have been closely attended to, and 
greatly admired, by every part of the audience. We are told 
by Dr. Birch, in his Life of Archbishop Tillotson, that he, who 
is emphatically called, in the Spectator, the great British 
Preacher, and who was more universally admired in the 
pulpit than any of his cotemporaries, " was never capable of 
committing his sermons to memory, or preaching extempore, 
according to the custom of the earlier part of his time, though 
so great a master of language, as well as the whole compass of 
theological learning. This appeared from an incident that is 
related on good authority. Happening to be with a friend in 
the country, who was importunate with him to preach, though 
he was not furnished with a sermon, he ventured into the 
pulpit, where he took for his text one of the plainest and ful- 
lest of matter that he could recollect. For we must all appear 
before the judgment-seat of Christ ; upon which he had no less 
than five discourses in his works ; and yet he soon found himself 
so much at a loss, that after about ten minutes spent with great 
pain to himself, and no great satisfaction to his audience, he 
came down with a resolution never to make the like attempt 
for the future. And it is observable, that the same kind of 
confusion happened to Dr. Sanderson, who was equally re- 
markable for an excellent memory, and a clear logical head, 
when, at the persuasion of his friend Dr. Hammond, he left his 
sermon with him, and endeavoured to repeat it in a village 
congregation*." 

Indeed the account given by Dr. Maynard, who succeeded 

* The Life of Tillotson, p. 23. See Walton's Life of Sanderson.) 



144 LIFE OF DR. JOHTSrSOK. 

all his sermons should be the production of study 
and cool reflection, composed with care, and 
written down at large ; and in preaching them 
he generally confined himself to what he had 
written. His sermons were consequently regular 

Dr. Tillotson as preacher at Lincoln's Inn, is somewhat dif- 
ferent. He says, that being with Dr. Tillotson, and on a 
certain occasion "observing to him, that he was glad that 
he had preserved his sermons, because he always thought 
that his Grace had preached from short notes only, the 
Archbishop, replied, that he had always written every word 
before he preached it; but used to get it by heart, till 
he found that it heated his head so much a day or two before 
and after he preached, that he was forced to leave it off." Dr. 
Maynard also says, *' that Dr. Wake, at the same time preacher 
at Gray's Inn, one day told him that he was resolved to preach 
no longer without book, since every body, even Dr. Tillotson, | 

had now left it off*." 

However, according to every account. Dr. Tillotson care- j 

fully composed and wrote down all his sermons ; and, during | 

the period of his greatest eminence as a preacher, he never | 

troubled himself to get them by heart. And yet, not only at 
Lincoln's Inn, but at iSt. Lawrence Jewry, and wherever he 
preached, " the audience generally stood, or sat, with the 
greatest attention, and even waited upon his discourses, hang- 
ing upon his lips. One should hardly see a wandering eye 
among them ; and when his sermons were ended, they went 
away with satisfied minds, and glad hearts, and cheerful 
Countenances +." 



Appendix to the same Life, p. 416. Ibid. p. 408. 



LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON-. l45 

compositions ; and by reason of the clearness 
of method, and a studied plainness, but correct- 
ness, of language, they were at once adapted 
to the use either of a learned or an illiterate 
audience. 

In pronouncing them, as well as in reading 
the Liturgy, or any of the occasional offices, his 
manner was solemn, and sometimes pathetic. 
He appeared grave and composed, both in the 
pulpit and desk ; but it could plainly be dis- 
covered, by the elevation and inflections of his 
voice, as well as by his countenance and ges- 
tures, that he was often warmed and animated 
by his subject. He had a proper strength of 
voice, which continued to the last; but the 
clearness of it began to fail him some years be- 
fore his death. 

Nor was he less attentive to the more private 
parochial duties than to his public performances. 
As long as he was able to go abroad without 
difficulty, he was frequently among his pa- 
rishioners, at their own houses, not overlooking 
the poorest or the meanest. He conversed 
familiarly with all of them, and adapted his 
conversation to their respective circumstances 
and capacities. Those that were vicious, he 
endeavoured to reclaim, in the spirit of meek- 
ness; those that were apt to be negligent and 

L 



146 LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 

careless, he endeavoured to quicken to a 
sense of their duty ; those that were ignorant, 
he endeavoured to instruct; while those that 
appeared to be serious and religious, he endea- 
voured to strengthen and confirm, by placing 
before them the great motives to perseverance, 
and still further improvements. When any of 
them were sick, he conscientiously visited them, 
treating them in such a manner as he thought 
their cases required, with great compassion and 
tenderness. 

In his free intercourse with his parishioners, 
he studied to promote, and w^s successful in 
promoting, peace and good neighbourhood, as 
well as the social virtues in general. But what 
always lay nearest his heart was the interest 
and honour of religion, and the eternal happiness 
of those with whom he was connected. That 
these great ends might be accomplished, as far 
as possible, he faithfully laboured, he earnestly 
prayed ; and he had the satisfaction of seeing 
himself instrumental in advancing them in many 
unquestionable instances. This consideration 
afforded him the greatest pleasure of his life, 
next to the uninterrupted expectation of a 
blessed immortality. 

Dr. Johnson's piety was without any mixture 
of that gloom or melancholy which unfortu- 



LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON^. 147 

nately too often attends it, and renders it useless 
to the world. He appeared to live under a 
strong sense of religion from his early youth. 
He never seemed forgetful of his obligations to, 
and his immediate dependence upon, Almighty 
God; but, acknowledged him in all his ways, 
owning his power and providence, adoring his 
wisdom, in the daily occurrences of life, and re- 
ferring all things to his righteous and gracious 
disposal. His patience in adversity, and his 
resignation to the will of heaven, under the 
heavy afflictions he met with in the decline of 
his life, (and till then he had hardly any experi- 
mental knowledge what affliction was) were as 
conspicuous and exemplary as any other Chris- 
tian graces that he possessed. 

He had the highest esteem for the peculiar 
doctrines of revelation ; and he considered, even 
with rapturous admiration and gratitude, the 
wonderful plan that was contrived for our re- 
demption, and the still more wonderful execu- 
tion of it, by the incarnation and sufferings of 
the eternal Son of God. He never was dis- 
posed to question God's willingness and desire 
to make him everlastingly happy, since he was 
graciously pleased not to withhold his Son, but 
to freely give him up, for the ransom and salva- 
tion even of the worst of sinners. 

L 2 



148 LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 

Accordingly his faith in the divine promises 
was strong, and vigorous, and active ; as he 
was conscious to himself of having sincerely en- 
deavoured, to the best of his power, to perform 
the conditions on which they are suspended. 
One of his most intimate friends * tells us, that 
" many years ago he, in the most serious man- 
ner, informed him, that, if it was God's will, he 
found himself willing, when he laid himself 
down at night, never to awake in this world 
again." 

With such faith and resignation he went on, 
from year to year, promoting the glory of God, 
advancing the happiness of his fellow men, and 
perfecting himself. At length, having finished 
the work assigned him, and being ripe for im- 
mortality, God was pleased to translate him 
from the wilderness of this world to the city of 
the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem; from 
the company of his earthly friends to that glo- 
rious society, which consists of angels and arch- 
angels, as well as of the spirits of just men made 
perfect. 

* Mr. Beach, ut supra. 



LIFE OF DR. JOHNSOlSr., 149 

Co7icluding Remarks by the Editor. 

In the perusal of the preceding pages, the 
reader has no doubt been struck with the re- 
markable fact, that at a time when the Episcopal 
Church was unknown in Connecticut, the Rev. 
Dr. Cutler, the President of Yale College ; Dr. 
Johnson; and other eminent congregational 
ministers in that state, were led to examine the 
subject of Episcopacy ; and that their researches 
terminated in a resolution to obtain valid ordina- 
tion from the hands of bishops. This resolution 
was opposed to all the prejudices of their edu- 
cation, sanctioned and confirmed by the general 
belief and practice of their countrymen. It cast 
the most pointed and obnoxious censure on the 
religious constitution of their country, which 
every motive of interest and reputation urged 
them to respect and support. The important 
change in their views must therefore have been 
a reluctant sacrifice paid to truth. They could 
have been excited only by that confidence which 
a sense of the supreme obligations of truth in- 
spires, to carry into efi'ect a resolution Avhicli 
they foresaw would subject them to many 
worldly inconveniences, and to general odium 
and reproach, at a period when the sacred rights 
of conscience were less understood and re- 
spected than at the present day. 



t50 LIFE OF DR. JOHNSOTC. 

There are found persons who assert, that all 
inquiries concerning the mode of conveying froni 
the divine head of the Church the authority of 
the priesthood are trivial, useless, and even hos- 
tile to the interests of piety ; and that those 
who engage in them betray a narrowness of 
mind and disposition incompatible with the en- 
larged love of truth, and with Christian charity. 
But may not the language of expostulation be 
justly raised against those who sport these as- 
sertions ? In treating contemptuously a subject 
which, to say the least, many wise and good 
men in every age have deemed of the first im- 
portance, do they not warrant the suspicion that 
they have never seriously and fully examined it ? 
The advocates of Episcopacy, while they are 
anxious to enforce, what the Universal Church 
has always maintained, the necessity and efficacy 
of the ministrations of a valid priesthood, and 
the duty of preserving ■ * the unity of the spirit 
in the bond of peace," do not presumptuously 
withhold the mercies of God from any who sin- 
cerely seek to know and to do his will. Does not 
then the charge of violating the spirit of Chris- 
tian charity recoil on those who thus unjustly 
and intemperately cast it on others ? 

It is not the intention of the Editor to attempt 
to exhibit the importance of the inquiry concern- 



LIFE OF DR. JOHISrsON. 151 

ing the mode in which valid ordination is to be 
obtained. This inquiry is conducted to a clear, 
and, he ventures to say, unanswerable conclusion 
in the tracts of the immortal Chillingworth and 
Leslie* ; men who yield to none in strength 
and variety of talents, in closeness of reasoning, 
and in extent and accuracy of learning, and to 
whom the Church is indebted for the best de- 
fences that are extant of her faith and doctrines. 
Nor is it his intention to prove, that in every age 
of the Church, men of the most exalted piety 
and talents, from the holy martyr Ignatius, 
Bishop of Antioch, the contemporary of the 
Apostles, to many who now shine as distin- 
guished luminaries in the Church, uniformly 
hold the language, " Let no man do any thing 
of what belongs to the Church without the 
bishop t-" He deems it, however, necessary 
to remark, that no one who has perused the 
preceding pages can consider Dr. Johnson's 
opinion of the necessity of Episcopal ordination 
to the exercise of a valid ministry, as the off- 
spring of a weak and uninformed mind, or of 
a narrow and bigotted heart. And concerning 

* The tracts of Leslie here alluded to are republished in the 
Scholar Armed. 

+ Ignatius, Epis. to the Smyrneans. 



152 LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 

Dr. Cutler, the President of Yale College, who 
entertained the same views with Dr. Johnson 
of the necessity of Episcopal ordination, the 
Editor begs leave to present an extract from 
the Rev. Dr. Miller's Retrospect of the Eighteenth 
Century. In his accounts of those persons whom 
he introduces into his work. Dr. Miller certainly 
evidences a candour and impartiality that. do 
him the highest honour. 

At page 359 of volume ii. Dr. Miller thus 
writes : " In Connecticut, at this time, litera- 
ture and science were, on the whole, gaining 
ground. The appointment of the Rev. Dr. 
Cutler *, as President of Yale College, was an 

* " The Rev. Dr. Timothy Cutler received his education at 
Harvard College, where he graduated in 1701. In 1710 he 
■was ordained and installed Minister of a Church at Stratford, 
according to the constitution of the Churches in Connecticut. 
In 1719 he was chosen President of Yale College, and entered 
on the duties of the office the same year. In 1722 he re- 
linquished the communion of the Congregational Church, and 
soon afterwards went to England and received orders in the 
Episcopal Church. He received the degree of Doctor in 
Divinity from both the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. 
He became Rector of Christ Church, in Boston, in the year 
1723, where he died in 1765. He is represented to have been 
a man of strong natural powers, and of extensive learning. He 
was well acquainted with classical literature, and was one of 
the best Oriental scholars ever educated in America. The 
Rev. Dr. Styles says, ' he had more knowledge of the Arabic 



LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. 153 

auspicious event to that institution He was a 
man of profound and general learning in the 
various branches of know^ledge cultivated in his 
day, particularly in Oriental literature, and 
presided over the seminary which he was called 
to superintend, with dignity, usefulness, and 
general approbation." 

than any man in New England before him, except President 
Chauncey, and his disciple, the first Mr. Thatcher.' Dr. 
Cutler was also well skilled in logic, metaphysics, moral phi- 
losophy, theology, and ecclesiastical history." 



APPENDIX, 



LETTERS TO DR. JOHNSON, 

FROM 

BISHOP BERKELEY, ARCHBISHOP SECKER, 
BISHOP LOWTH, AND OTHERS. 



[The following Letters, which are hut a small part of the 
Correspondence of the English Clergy ivith Dr. Johnson, 
are printed from faithful copies, taken by Dr. Chandler 
from the originals. It is much to be regretted that the 
copies of the rest of this Correspondence, together with Dr. 
Chandler^ soion valuable and extensive Correspondence and 
large collection of Manuscripts relative to the Civil and 
Ecclesiastical Affairs of this country before the Revolu- 
tion, have been destroyed.'] 



Letters from Bishop Berkeley to Dr. Johnson. 

It is a common fault for men to hate opposition, and to 
be too much wedded to their own opinions, I am so 
sensible of this in others, that I could not pardon it to 



156 APPENDIX. 

myself, if I considered mine any further than they seem 
to me to be true ; which I shall be the better able to 
judge of when they have passed the scrutiny of persons 
so well qualified to examine them as you and your friends 
appear to be ; to whom my illness must be an apology 
for not sending this answer sooner. 

1. The true use and end of natural philosophy is to 
explain the phenomena of nature, which is done by dis- 
covering the laws of nature, and reducing particular 
appearances to them. This is Sir Isaac Newton's 
method, and such method or design is not in the least 
inconsistent with the principles I lay down. This me- 
chanical philosophy doth not assign or suppose any 
one natural efficient cause in the strict and proper sense ; 
nor is it, as to its use, concerned about matter, nor is 
matter connected therewith, nor doth it infer the being 
of matter. It must be owned indeed that the mechanical 
philosophers do suppose (though unnecessarily) the 
being of matter. They do even pretend to demonstrate 
that matter is proportional to gravity, which, if they 
could, this indeed would furnish an unanswerable ob- 
jection. But let us examine their demonstration. It is 
laid down in the first place, that the momentum of any 
body is the product of its quantity by its velocity, moles 
in celeritatem ducta. If, therefore, the velocity is given, 
the momentum will be as its quantity. But it is ob- 
served that bodies of all kinds descend in vacuo with 
the same velocity ; therefore the momentum of descend- 
ing bodies is as the quantity or moles, i. e. gravity is 
as matter. But this argument concludes nothing, 
and is a mere circle. For I ask, when it is premised 
that the momentum is equal to the moles in celerita- 



APPENDIX. 157 

tern ducta, how the moles or quantity of matter is esti- 
mated? If you say, by extent, the proposition is not 
true : if by weight, then you suppose that the quan- 
tity of matter is proportional to matter, i. e. the con- 
clusion is taken for granted in one of the premises. 
As for absolute space and motion, which are also sup- 
posed without any necessity or use, I refer you to 
what I have already published, particularly in a Latin 
treatise, De Motu, which I shall take care to send 
you. 

2. Cause is taken in different senses. A proper ac- 
tive efficient cause I can conceive none but spirit ; nor 
any action, strictly speaking, but where there is will. 
But this doth not hinder the allowing occasional 
causes (which are in truth but signs), and more is not 
requisite in the best physics, i. e. the mechanical phi- 
losophy. Neither doth it hinder the admitting other 
causes besides God, such as spirits of different orders, 
which may be termed active causes, as acting indeed 
though by limited and derivative powers. But as for 
an unthinking agent, no point of physics is explained 
by it, nor is it conceivable. 

S. Those who have all along contended for a material 
world, have yet acknowledged that natura naturans (to 
use the language of the schoolmen) is God ; and that the 
divine conservation of things is equipollent to, and, in 
fact, the same thing with a continued repeated creation : 
in a word, that conservation and creation differ only in 
the terminus a quo. These are the common opinions of 
schoolmen ; and Durandus, who held the world to be a 
machine like a clock made and put in motion by God, 
but afterwards continued to go of itself, was therein 



158 APPENDIX. 

particular, and had few followers. The very poets 
teach a doctrine not unlike the schools — Mens agitat 
molem. Virg. ^neid, vi. The Stoics and Platonists are 
every where full of the same notion. I am not there- 
fore singular in this point itself, so much as in my 
way of proving it. Further, it seems to me that the 
power and wisdom of God are as worthily set forth by 
supposing him to act immediately as an omnipresent 
infinitely active spirit, as by supposing him to act by 
mediation of subordinate causes, in preserving and go- 
verning the natural world. A clock indeed may go 
independent of its maker or artificer, inasmuch as the 
gravitation of its pendulum proceeds from another 
cause, and that the artificer is not the adequate cause 
of the clock; so that the analogy would not be just, 
to suppose a clock is in respect of its artist what the 
world is in respect of its Creator. For aught I can see, 
it is no disparagement to the perfections of God to say, 
that all things necessarily depend on him as their 
Conservator as well as Creator, and that all nature 
would shrink to nothing if not upheld and preserved 
in being by the same force that first created it. This 
I am sure is agreeable to holy Scripture, as well as 
to the writings of the most esteemed philosophers ; and 
if it be considered that men make use of tools and 
machines to supply defect of power in themselves, we 
shall think it no honour to the divinity to attribute 
such things to him. 

4. As to guilt, it is the same thing whether I kill a 
man with my hands or an instrument; whether I do 
it myself or make use of a ruffian. The imputation 
therefore upon the sanctity of God is equal, whether we 

t 



APPENDIX. 159 

suppose our sensations to be produced immediately by 
God, or by the mediation of instruments and subordi- 
nate causes, all which are his creatures, and moved by 
his laws. This theological consideration, therefore, 
may be waved, as leading beside the question; for 
such I hold all points to be which bear equally hard 
on both sides of it. Difficulties about the principle of 
moral actions will cease, if we consider that all guilt is 
in the will, and that our ideas, from whatever cause 
they are produced, are alike inert. 

5. As to the art and contrivance in the parts of 
animals, &c. I have considered that matter in the Prin- 
ciples of Human Knowledge, and, if I mistake not, suffi- 
ciently shown the wisdom and use thereof, considered 
as signs and means of information. I do not indeed 
wonder, that on first reading what I have written, men 
are not thoroughly convinced. On the contrary, I should 
very much wonder if prejudices, which have been many 
years taking root, should be extirpated in a few hours 
reading. I had no inclination to trouble the world 
with large volumes. What I have done was rather with 
a view of giving hints to thinking men, who have leisure 
and curiosity to go to the bottom of things, and pur- 
sue them in their own minds. Two or three times 
reading these small tracts, and making what is read 
the occasion of thinking, would, I believe, render the 
whole familiar and easy to the mind, and take off that 
shocking appearance which hath often been observed 
to attend speculative truths. 

6. I see no difficulty in conceiving a change of state, 
such as is vulgarly called Death, as well without as 
with material substance. It is sufficient for that pur- 



160 APPENDIX. 

pose that we allow sensible bodies, a. e. such as are 
immediately perceived by sight and touch, the exist* 
ence I am so far from questioning (as philosophers are 
used to do), that I establish it, I think, upon evident 
principles. Now, it seems very easy to conceive the 
soul to exist in a separate state {i. e. divested from 
those limits and laws of motion and perception with 
which she is embarrassed here,) and to exercise herself 
on new ideas, without the intervention of these tangible 
things we call bodies. It is even very possible to ap- 
prehend how the soul may have ideas of colours without 
an eye, or of sounds without an ear. ***** 



Cloyne, Aug. 23, 1749. 
Rev. Sir, 
I am obliged for the account you have sent me of 
the prosperous estate of learning in your college of 
New Haven. I approve of the regulations made there, 
and am particularly pleased to find your sons have 
made such a progress as appears from their elegant ad- 
dress to me in the Latin tongue. It must indeed give 
me a very sensible satisfaction to hear that my weak 
endeavours have been of some use and service to that 
part of the world. I have two letters of yours at once 
on my hands to answer, for which business of various 
kinds must be my apology. As to the first, wherein 
you enclosed a small pamphlet relating to tar water, 
I can only say in behalf of those points in which the 
ingenious author seems to differ from me, that I ad- 



APPENDIX. 161 

vance nothing which is not grounded on experience, as 
may be seen at large in Mr. Prior's narrative of the 
effects of tar water, printed three or four years ago, 
and which may be supposed to have reached America. 
For the rest I am glad to find a spirit towards learn- 
ing prevails in those parts, particularly New York, 
where you say a college is projected, which has my 
best wishes. At the same time I am sorry that the 
condition of Ireland, containing such numbers of poor 
uneducated people, for whose sake charity schools are 
erecting throughout the kingdom, obligeth us to draw 
charities from England ; so far are we from being able 
to extend our bounty to New York, a country in pro- 
portion much richer than our own. But as you are 
pleased to desire my advice upon this undertaking, I 
send the following hints to be enlarged and improved 
by your own judgment. 

I would not advise the applying to England for char- 
ters or statutes (which might cause great trouble, ex- 
pence and delay), but to do the business quietly within 
yourselves. 

I believe it may suffice to begin with a president and 
two fellows. If they can procure but three fit persons, 
I doubt not the college, from the smallest beginnings, 
would soon grow considerable. I should conceive good 
hopes were you at the head of it. 

Let them by all means supply themselves out of the 
seminaries in New England. For I am very apprehen- 
sive none can be got in Old England (who are willing 
to go) worth sending. 

Let the Greek and Latin classics be well taught. 
Be this the first care as to learning. But the principal 

M 



162 APPENDIX. 

care must be good life and morals, to which (as well as 
to study) early hours and temperate meals will much 
conduce. 

If the terms for degrees are the same as at Oxford 
or Cambridge, this would give credit to the college, 
and pave the way for admitting their graduates ad enn- 
dem in the English universities. 

Small premiums in books, or distinctions in habit, 
may prove useful encouragements to the students. 

I would advise that the building be regular, plain 
and cheap, and that each student have a small room 
(about ten feet square) to himself. 

I recommended this nascent seminary to an English 
bishop, to try what might be done there. But by his 
answer it seems the colony is judg;ed rich enough to 
educate its own youth. 

Colleges from small beginning grow great by subse- 
quent bequests and benefactions. A small matter will 
suffice to set one a-going. And when this is once well 
done, there is no doubt it will go on and thrive. The 
chief concern must be to set out in a good method, and 
introduce from the very first a good taste into the so- 
ciety. For this end its principal expence should be in 
making a handsome provision for the president and 
fellows. 

I have thrown together these few crude thoughts for 
you to ruminate upon and digest in your own judg- 
ment, and propose from yourself, as you see conve" 
nient. 

My correspondence with patients that drink tar 
water obliges me to be less punctual in corresponding 
with my friends. But I shall be always glad to hear 



APPENDIX. 163 

from you. My sincere good wishes and prayers attend 
you in all your laudable undertakings. 

I am your faithful humble servant, 

G. Cloyne. 



Cloyne, July 17, 1750. 
Rev. Sir, 

A few months ago I had an opportunity of writing 
to you and Mr. Honyman, by an inhabitant of Rhode 
Island government. I would not nevertheless omit the 
present occasion of saluting you, and letting you know, 
that it gave me great pleasure to hear from Mr. Bourk, 
a passenger from those parts, that a late sermon of 
yours at New Haven, hath had a very good effect in 
reconciling several to the Church. I find also by a 
letter from Mr. Clap, that learning continues to make 
notable advances in your college. This gives me great 
satisfaction. And that God may bless your worthy 
endeavours, and crown them with success, is the sin- 
cere prayer of. Rev. Sir, 

Your faithful brother and obedient servant, 

G. Cloyne. 

P.S. I hope your ingenious sons are still an ornament 
to Yale College, and tread in their father's steps. 



Cloyne, July 25, 1751. 
Rev. Sir, 
I would not let Mr. Hall depart without a line from 
me in acknowledgment of your letter which he put into 
my hands. 

M2 



164 APPENDIX. 

As for Mr. Hutchinson's writings, I am not acquainted 
with them. I live in a remote corner, where many mo- 
dern things escape me. Only this I can say, that I 
have observed that author to be mentioned as an en- 
thusiast, which gave me no prepossession in his favour. 

I am glad to find by Mr. Clap's letter, and the 
specimens of literature enclosed in his packet, that 
learning continues to make a progress in Yale College; 
and hope that virtue and Christian charity may keep 
pace with it. 

The letters which you and Mr. Clap say you had 
written in answer to my last, never came to my hands. 
I am glad to hear, by Mr. Hall, of the good health and 
condition of yourself and family. I pray God to bless 
you and yours, and prosper your good endeavours. 
I am. Rev. Sir, 
Your faithful friend and humble servant, 

G. Cloyne. 



Letters from Bishop Sherlock to Dr. Johnson. 

London, Sept. 19, 1750. 

Sir, 

As I have written to the commissaries of the late 

Bishop, to give them an account how matters stand 

here with respect to the ecclesiastical state of the 

churches abroad, I have ordered you a copy, and shall 

be obliged to you for any information you can give me. 

I dm your affectionate brother and servant, 

Tho. London. 



APPENDIX. 165 

{Coptj.) 
Rev. Sir, 

I have no excuse to make for the silence I have ob- 
served towards you and the other commissaries in the 
plantations, but only this, that I waited in hopes of 
giving you an account of a settlement of ecclesiastical 
affairs for the colonies, in some shape or other. I have 
been far from neglecting the affairs of your churches, 
and have been soliciting the establishment of one or 
two bishops to reside in proper parts of the plantations, 
and to have the conduct and direction of the whole. I 
am sensible for myself that I am capable of doing but 
very little service to those distant churches, and I am 
persuaded that no bishop residing in England ought to 
have, or willingly to undertake, this province. As soon 
as I came to the see of London, I presented a memorial 
to the king upon this subject; which was referred to 
his principal officers of state to be considered. But so 
many difficulties were started, that no report was made 
to his majesty. After this I presented a petition to the 
king in council of like purport. His majesty's journey 
to Hanover left no room to take a resolution upon an 
affair that deserves to be maturely weighed. This lies 
before the king in council, and will, I hope, be called 
for when his majesty returns to England. This is a 
short state of the case. 

You will see by this account that I am not yet able 
to say any thing as to the effect of these applications: 
but as in all events a new patent must be granted, 
either to the Bishop of London, or to a new bishop, I 
desire to be informed by you how the jurisdiction has 
been carried on during the time that the late Bishop of 



166 APPENDIX. 

London acted under a patent from the crown. I know 
the jurisdiction so granted extends only to the clergy ; 
but with respect to this branch there seems to me to be 
some defects in the patent. But I will not point them 
out to forestall your judgment, but shall be much 
obliged to you for any observation upon this head which 
your experience has furnished you with ; which I shall 
endeavour to make use of for the service of the churches 
abroad. 

I am^ Sir, yours, &c. 



Dr. Johnson's Answer to the preceding. 

Stratford, March 26, 1751. 
May it please your Lordship, 

The bearer hereof is Mr. T. B. Chandler, whom a 
number of us jointly recommended to your lordship 
last fall to be admitted to holy orders, and he has now 
leave from the society to go for that purpose ; concern- 
ing whom I need add nothing to what is contained in 
our joint testimonial, to which therefore I refer your 
lordship, and doubt not but he will prove a very worthy 
missionary, and continue to deserve well that recom- 
mendation. 

On this occasion I write my most thankful acknow- 
ledgment of your lordship's kind letter of September 
19th last (which came not to my hands till this very 
month), and would humbly inform your lordship how 
extremely thankful we all are for the tender care you 
express for our churches, and the solicitous endeavours 



APPENDIX. 167 

you are using to promote bishops for these remote parts. 
We earnestly pray God that your endeavours may be 
attended with the desired success : and I herewith send 
your lordship a copy of our joint answer to a paper of 
proposals which has been sent into these parts (signed 
by as many as could have opportunity), if peradventure 
it may be of some use, though it may probably be too 
late. 

As to what your lordship desires in your letter to the 
late bishop's commissaries, I must humbly beg to be 
excused, and to refer your lordship to the answers they 
will give to it, because I have no copy of his late lord- 
ship's patent, nor ever had more than a very transient 
sight of it, and by reason of my distance and extensive 
care here, I have not for many years been at any con- 
vention of the clergy, nor was there ever any juridical 
act carried on when I was present, besides inquiries 
into the condition of our parishes ; so that I am unable 
to give any light that can be of any use to your lord- 
ship on this subject. I could wish the bishop or com- 
missaries might be empowered or directed to require 
an annual account from the people of their punctual 
performing their part towards the support of their 
ministers, and that some provision could be made of a 
moderate discipline, purely spiritual, in pursuance of 
the rubric to suspend open and notorious evil livers 
from the holy sacrament. But I doubt not but your 
lordship will do the utmost you can for us, if at all any 
thing can be done. There are two more- candidates to 
whom we gave our testimonials, who I believe will 
shortly embark ; by whom, if any thing occurs to me 



168 APPENDIX. 

that can be of any use, I shall write further to your 
lordship. In the mean time I remain, my Lord, 
Your lordship's most dutiful, 
and most obedient son, and humble servant, 

Samuel Johnson. 
To my Lord of London. 



Proposals, relating to American Bishops, sent to England 
in 1750. 

As the chief obstruction to the settling bishops in 
America arises from an apprehension here that the 
several colonies abroad would be unwilling to have 
bishops among them, from a jealousy that introducing 
ecclesiastical power among them may interfere with 
some rights which, by custom, or by acts of their 
respective assemblies, are now vested in other hands ; 
it is become necessary, in order to know their senti- 
ments, to inform them rightly in this case. 

Their objections (if they have any) must be, as is 
supposed, upon one or all the following accounts. 

1. With respect to the coercive power such bishops 
may exercise over the people in causes ecclesiastical. 

2. With respect to the inteicst or authority of the 
governors there. 

3. With respect to the burthen that may be brought 
upon the people, of supporting and maintaining bishops 
there. 

4. With respect to such of the colonies where the 



APPENDIX. 169 

government is in the hands of the Independents, or 
other dissenters, whose princij3les are inconsistent with 
episcopal government. 

As these objections are all founded upon a misap- 
prehension of the case, it may be proper to have it 
understood. 

1st. That no coercive power is desired over the laity 
in any case ; but only a power to regulate the behaviour 
of the clergy who are in episcopal orders, and to cor- 
rect and punish them according to the law of the 
Church of England, in case of misbehaviour or neglect 
of duty ; with such power as the commissaries abroad 
have exercised. 

2dly. That nothing is desired for such bishops that 
may in the least interfere with the dignity, or autho- 
rity, or interest of governor, or any other officer of 
state. Probate of wills, licence for marriage, &c. to be 
left in the hands where they are, and no share of the 
temporal government is desired for the bishops. 

3dly. The maintenance of such bishops not to be at 
the charge of the colonies. 

4thly. No bishops are intended to be settled in 
places were the government is in the hands of dissen- 
ters, as in New England, &.c. but authority to be given 
only to ordain clergy for such Church of England con- 
gregations as are among them, and to inspect into the 
manners and behaviour of the same clergy, and to con- 
firm the members thereof. 

It is proposed to the society to recommend to such 
of their members as have correspondence abroad, to 
acquaint their friends with these particulars, in order 
to know the sense of the people there, when duly in- 



170 APPENDIX. 

formed of the case ; and to know what other objections 
they may have to the said proposal. 

We, the subscribers, having read the foregoing ob- 
jections, are not able to recollect any others made by 
the dissenters here against resident bishops in America, 
but what are herein contained ; and notwithstand- 
ing these objections, we are heartily desirous that 
bishops should be provided for the plantations, and are 
fully persuaded that our several congregations, and all 
other congregations of the Church of England in New 
England, are earnestly desirous of the same. 

Timothy Cutler, 
Ebenezer Miller, 
Henry Caner, 
Charles Brockwell, 
William Hooper 
. Boston, (N. E.) Nov. 28, 1750. 



Letters from Bishop Sherlock to Dr. Johnson. 

London, April 21, 1752. 
Rev. Sir, 

I am very much obliged to you for your letters of the 
26th of March, and 25th of September 1751. I have, 
for above a quarter of a year, been under a fit of the 
gout, which has disabled me from attending to busi- 
ness ; otherwise you should have heard sooner from me. 

The observations you communicated to me, with 
relation to the settlement of Episcopacy amongst you, 
are very just, and worthy of consideration ; but I am 



APPENDIX. 171 

afraid that others, who have more power and influence, 
do not see the thing in the light that we do, and I have 
but little hopes of succeeding at present. 

I think myself at present in a very bad situation ; 
bishop of a vast country, without power, or influence, 
or any means of promoting true religion : sequestered 
from the people over whom I have the care, and must 
never hope to see. I should be tempted to throw off 
all this care quite, were it not for the sake of preserv- 
ing even the appearance of an Episcopal Church in the 
plantations. 

Your letter of the 20th of October last, sent by 
Messrs. Camp and Colton, came but lately to hand. 
I thank you for it, and particularly for giving me some 
light into the quarrel between Mr. Graves and Mr. 
Colton. Mr. Graves wrote to me a very bad character 
of him, but could not conceal his passion and resent- 
ment, charging him with very heinous crimes. His 
letter gave me great offence, as he will find when he 
receives my answer. 

I am. Sir, 
Your affectionate brother and humble servant, 

Tho. London. 



Fulhavi, Oct. 20, 1754'. 
Rev. Sir, 

In consideration of Mr. Palmer's circumstances, and 
the strong recommendation he brought from you and 
other worthy clergymen, I appointed a special ordina- 
tion, and not being able myself to ordain, the Bishop 
of Bangor, at jny request, was so good as to come 



172 APPENDIX, 

hither and ordam him; but I refer myself to him to 
give you an account of his reception here. 

Sir, I do heartily congratulate the Church abroad^ 
upon the prospect of the settlement of a College at New 
York under the circumstances and conditions you specify. 
There is nothing that has come from your parts that has 
given me so much satisfaction ; and every friend of the 
Church of England will be very much obliged to you 
for undertaking the care of it ; for upon the prudence 
and fidelity of those who have the first formation, the 
future success of this undertaking will very much de- 
pend. I remember some time ago, that I heard of this 
scheme, but then it was insisted, that the dissenters 
should have the direction entirely, and that the service 
of the College should be in their way. One reason 
offered in behalf of such settlement was, that it would 
be very convenient for the education of the young 
gentlemen of the islands ; which, I own, was far from 
being an argument with me 5 for as the inhabitants of 
the islands are almost generally of the Church of 
England, I thought the putting the young people un- 
der the conduct of the dissenters, and obliging them to 
their manner of worship, might, in time, be attended 
with great inconveniences ; but if the College can be 
settled upon the terms you mentioned, it will go a great 
way in showing that the zeal for establishing the 
Church of England is not so inconsiderable in New 
England as it has sometimes been industriously re- 
presented. 

I pray God grant you health and strength to ac- 
complish this undertaking, to whose protection I 
recommend you, and the good work. 



APPENDIX. 173 

If I live to henr that you are settled in this new 
office, I shall pay great regard to your recommendation 
of Mr. Beach. 

/ I am. Sir, 

Your affectionate brother and very humble servant, 

Tho. London. 



Letters to Dr. Johnson from Bishop Seeker. 

St. PauVs Deanry, London, Feb. 27, 1752. 
Good Dr. Johnson, 
I am very sorry that I have neither performed your 
desire of procuring a degree for Mr. Chandler, nor an- 
swered your letter sooner. But I hope you will see 
reason to excuse me. On his first application to me, 
I engaged the Bishop of Norwich to ordain him, with 
the Bishop of London's approbation ; for I was going 
myself into Oxfordshire. There I mentioned your re- 
quest on his behalf to several heads of houses, who 
promised their assistance, but wished he had brought 
a certificate of the degree which he received abroad. 
About the same time he wrote to me, to desire that I 
would ordain him ; because he believed the Bishop of 
Norwich would be too much engaged with the Prince 
of Wales. I returned him answer, that the Bishop had 
promised me to do it : and that I was for some time 
otherwise employed in my diocese ; taking it for granted, 
that he would afterwards come to Oxford, as he had 
told me he intended. But I heard nothing more of him, 
till, on my return to town. Dr. Bearcroft told me that 



174 APPENDIX. 

he had been ordained by the Bishop of Norwich, and 
was gone back. Still I apprehend the degree may be 
obtained, on transmitting a certificate of that which 
was conferred on him in New England, and a recom- 
mendatory letter from one or more of the Episcopal 
Clergy ; which may be directed either to me, or to the 
Bishop of Bristol, who is likewise Dean of Christ 
Church. 

You receive, I doubt not, constant accounts from Dr. 
Bearcroft and others, concerning the state of the So- 
ciety's affairs here. Our fund is reduced at present 
very low : and the last year's benefactions have been 
very small. God incline the hearts of men to liberality 
at the approaching general collection. The king hath 
given five hundred pounds. I wish it had been more* 
But I know not whether his predecessors have given 
any thing. I am reprinting, on this occasion, my ser- 
mon before the society, in hopes it may do some good ; 
and shall give a copy to each minister of a parish in 
my diocese. It will be of use to us to receive, as early 
as possible, both accounts and copies of whatever is 
printed in your parts, relating to the concerns of the 
Society. The dissenters here have lately had some 
things of this kind before us : and I think we have had 
them only through their hands. Concerning the im- 
portant scheme of establishing bishops abroad, I can, 
at present, give no encouraging prospect. We must 
endeavour again when we see opportunity ; and pray 
always, that He who hath put the times and seasons in 
his own power, would, in the time that he sees proper, 
revive that, and every part of his work amongst us : 
for indeed religion continues to decay most lamentably. 



APPENDIX. 175 

But we know, that all things work together for good ; 
and that the kingdoms of this world shall become the 
kingdoms of our Lord and his Christ. 

I am, with great esteem and regard. Sir, 
Your loving brother and humble servant, 

Tho. Oxford. 



Deanry of St. Paul's, March 19, llSif. 
Good Dr. Johnson, 
I should have returned you my hearty thanks before 
now, if extraordinary business had not put it partly out 
of my power and partly out of my thoughts, for your 
favours by Mr. Smith. He is, indeed, a very ingenious 
and able, and seems a very well-disposed young man. 
And if he had pursued his intention of residing awhile 
at Oxford, I should have hoped for more of his com- 
pany and acquaintance. Nor would he, I think, have 
failed to see more fully, what I flatter myself he is con- 
vinced of without it, that our Universities do not de- 
serve the sentence which is passed on them by the 
author whom he cites, and whose words he adopts in 
p. 84. of his General Idea of the College of Mirania. 
He assures me that they are effaced in almost all the 
copies. I wish they had not been printed, or that the 
leaf had been cancelled. But the many valuable things 
which there are in that performance, and in the papers 
which he published at New York, will atone for this 
blemish with all candid persons. And there seems a 
fair prospect of his doing great service in the place 



176 APPENDIX. 

where he is going to settle. I am particularly obliged 
to you for sending me your book : of which I made a 
very acceptable present to the late excellent Bishop 
of Cloyne's son, a most serious, and sensible, and 
prudent young man, whom his father placed at Christ 
Church, and who, with his mother and sister, spent 
the last summer with me in Oxfordshire. I have now 
lately received from Mr. Smith another copy of it, 
printed here ; and have read several parts of it, and all 
with much pleasure. You have taken very proper care 
to keep those, who do not enter into all the philosophy 
of the good and great man from being shocked at it, 
and you have explained and recommended just reason- 
ing, virtue, and religion, so as not only to make them 
well understood, but ardently loved. Would God there 
were any present hopes of executing what the conclud- 
ing piece unanswerably proves to be harmless, useful, 
and requisite. But w^e have done all we can here in 
vain, and must wait for more favourable times ; which 
I think it will contribute not a little to bring on, if the 
Ministers of our Church in America, by friendly con- 
verse with the principal dissenters, can satisfy them, 
that nothing more is intended or desired, than that our 
Church may enjoy the full benefit of its own institu- 
tions, as all others do. For so long as they are uneasy, 
and remonstrate, regard will be paid to them and their 
friends here by our Ministers of State. And yet it will 
be a hard matter for you to prevent their being uneasy, 
while they find you gaining ground upon them. That 
so much of the money of the Society was employed in 
supporting Episcopal congregations amongst them, 
was industriously made an argument against the late 



APPENDIX. ]77 

collection. And though, God be thanked, the collec- 
tion hath notwithstanding proved a very good one, 
yet unless we be cautious on that head, we shall have 
farther clamour : and one knows not what the effect of 
it may be. Our friends in America will furnish us, I 
hope, from time to time, with all such facts, books, 
observations, and reasonings, as may enable us the 
better to defend our common cause. 

I am, with great regard and esteem. Sir, 
Your loving brother and humble servant, 

Tho. Oxford. 



[The copy of a long Letter of September 27, 1758, written 
by Archbishop Seeker, on his first preferment to the See 
of Canterbury, is unfortunately lost.l 



Lambeth, July 19, 1759, 
Good Dr. Johnson, 
I thank you heartily for your two letters of March 
20th, and April 15th. I have received much useful in- 
formation from both of them, especially from the former 
and longer, of which I hope to have the sequel iu a 
little time. On a consultation amongst the Bishops, 
it was agreed, that though establishing a misson at 
Cambridge might probably furnish a handle for more 
than ordinary clamour, yet the good to be expected 
there from the temper, and prudence, and abilities of 
Mr. Apthorp, was likely to overbalance that incon- 

N 



178 APPENDIX. 

venience considerably : and that it would be best to 
propose the matter in the Society, without taking notice 
of its being liable to any peculiar objections: which 
w as done accordingly, and the resolution taken una- 
nimously. Your views in relation to a successor are 
very worthy of you : but I hope many years will pass 
before there be occasion to deliberate on that head. 
Pray, will it not be proper that I should send over a 
proxy, as a Governor of the College ? and will you per- 
mit me to nominate you ? 

How the matter concerning Mr. Beach hath been 
accommodated, I have not heard, but shall be glad to 
hear. 

Nor have I ever seen the Independent Rejledor, or the 
Watch Tower. Nor will it be of use to have every 
number of a periodical paper transmitted, but only 
such as relate to the concerns of the Church and the 
Society. I have an Ordination sermon, published by 
Mr. Hobart in 1747, and his second address, but not 
the first. Just in like manner I had the continuation 
of Mr. Beach's Vindication, but not the Vindication 
itself, till you lately sent it me ; for which I am much 
obliged to you. Dr. Bearcroft hath shown me Mr. 
Barclay's Remarks, which I like very well, so far as 
they go. But I hope a fuller answer to the several re- 
flections cast upon the Society may be drawn up, of 
which his Remarks will make an useful part. Your 
letter of last March contains likewise very proper 
materials. I was a very young Bishop in 1735, and 
almost my whole time was taken up in the care of St. 
James's Parish ; by which means it happened, that I 
either did not know any thing * * * * » « * 



APPENDIX. 17^ 

l^The date of the Letter of which the following is a Frag' 
ment is not known.'] 

a Mr. Graham, Fellow of Queen's College, in Oxford, 
who was reader of philosophy and mathematics in the 
College at Williamsburg, and reckoned a man of good 
character ; but I can learn nothing more of him, not 
even whether he is in America or in England. One Mr. 
Cooper, a fellow also of Queen's College, hath been re- 
commended to me as a grave and good man, and very 
well affected to the government ; well qualified for the 
inferior tutor's place, but not inclined to accept it ; not 
unskilled in Hebrew, and willing to take the Vice- 
President's office ; but not of age for Priest's orders 
till next February. I am afraid, though I have not 
seen him, that he should appear too young ; but have 
given no decisive answer. The only remaining person, 
hitherto mentioned to me, though I have not inquired 
diligently, is one Mr. Wall, Fellow of Christ College, a 
studious man, and very good mathematician : a good 
preacher also ; but his voice is not strong, though clear: 
his age, I believe, towards thirty : but he understands 
little or nothing of the Hebrew : and as he would not 
accept the inferior place, so, upon the whole, he thinks 
himself unfit for the superior, though the head of his 
College thinks otherwise. He wanted to know, as 
others may, what is the particular business of the 
President and of the Vice-President ; whether the man- 
ner of living be collegiate at a common table, and 

N 2 



180 APPENDIX. 

whether the country be a very dear one. I am unable 
to answer these questions. It grieves me that you 
should be without help so long. If any other person 
can procure it for you, I shall be heartily glad. But 
I think you had better wait than have a wrong person 
sent you from hence. Could not you get some tem- 
porary assistance in your neighbourhood ? 

I come now to your letter of July 13th, 1760, and as- 
sure you that I shall always be pleased with your noti- 
fying and proposing to me whatever you apprehend to 
be material ; because I know it will always be done with 
good intention, and almost always furnish me with useful 
notices ; and indeed will be of no small use, even when 
you may happen to judge amiss, as it will give me 
an opportunity of setting you right. In my opinion, 
the paper intended for the London Magazine, and the 
letters for Lord Halifax and Mr. Pitt, are of the latter 
sort. The things said in them are, in the main, right, 
so far as they may be practicable ; but publishing 
them to the world beforehand, instead of waiting till 
the time comes, and then applying privately to the 
persons whose advice the king will take about them, is 
likely to raise opposition, and prevent success. Pub- 
lishing them, indeed, in a Magazine, may raise no great 
alarm ; but then it will be apt to produce contempt : 
for those monthly collections are far from being in high 
esteem. And as soon as either of those great men 
should see that the queries offered to him were designed 
to be inserted in any of them, he^would be strongly 
tempted to throw them aside, without looking further 
into them, even were he otherwise disposed to read 
them over : which men of business seldom are, when 



APPENDIX. 181 

they receive papers from unknown hands, few of them 
in proportion deserving it. You will pardon the frank- 
ness with which I tell you my thoughts. Whatever 
good use I can make of your notions, I will. But the 
use which you propose is not agreeable to my judgment. 

The dissenters here, and too many who continue in 
the Church, have been running, for a considerable 
number of years, into what you call Taylorism. I am 
glad that the Clergy in your parts are orthodox. Mr. 
Maclaneghan gives them a very different character. 
I hope they will cut off all occasion from them who 
desire occasion against them, by preaching faithfully 
and frequently the distinguishing doctrines of the 
Gospel ; which we in this nation have neglected too 
much, and dwelt disproportionately on morality and 
natural religion ; whence the Methodists have taken 
advantage to decry us, and gain followers. 

I will take notice of what you say in this letter, as 
well as a former, concerning missions and missionaries, 
and write further to you, as soon as I can do it to any 
purpose. 

Your observations concerning a certain colony shall 
not be mentioned to your detriment. I have a paper 
on the same subject, in a great measure, without date, 
and not of your hand-writing, but indorsed by Arch- 
bishop Herring, as coming from you. God grant this 
confusion may be reduced into order, and that, in the 
mean time, some good may come out of the evil. 
h I have spoken concerning a new Lieutenant-Governor, 
in the manner which you desired, to the Duke of New- 
castle and Mr. Pitt, and also to Lord Halifax, in whom 
the choice is. They all admit the request to be a very 



18^ APPENDIX. 

reasonable and important one ; and promise that care 
shall be taken about it. The last of them is very earn- 
est for Bishops in America. I hope we may have a 
chance to succeed in that great point, when it shall 
please God to bless us with a peace. 

We have lost our good old king, a true well-wisher 
to his people, and a man of many private virtues. His 
successor is a regular, and worthy, and pious young 
man ; and hath declared himself, I am satisfied very 
sincerely, to have the interest of religion at heart. God 
keep him in the same mind, and bless his endeavours. 
He continues the same ministry which his grandfather 
had, with as few changes as possible : and I know not 
whether this nation was ever go much at unity in itself 
as it is at present. 

Since I have written thus far, I have seen Mr. Cooper, 
who appears well ; but tells me, that he only made a short 
attempt to learn Hebrew, and laid it aside. Therefore 
I dare not send him without especial direction. 

God bless you, good Dr. Johnson, and all your 
brethren, and his whole Church in your parts. I am, 
with regard and esteem, your loving brother, 

Tho. Cant. 



Lambeth, Jan. 20, 1761. 
Good Dr. Johnson, 

The University of Oxford have unanimously given 

Mr, Barclay, at my request, the degree of a Doctor in 

Divinity, by a diploma, which is in my hands, but 

shall be sent to the Doctor in such manner as he 



APPENDIX. 183 

shall direct. Be pleased in the mean time to con- 
gratulate him from me on the justice done in this re- 
spect to his merit. 

My further inquiries for tutors in your college, though 
diligent, continue to be unsuccessful. Nor do we find 
persons to supply our vacant missions, which are now 
seven or eight. Pray is Mr. Gibbs, of Simsbury, in a 
condition to do any duty properly, and what? And is 
there any hope that Mr. Lyons, of Brookhaven, if re- 
moved with an admonition, would mend ? I hope you 
will send us over good young men for missionaries when 
you can. We must supply the old parishes before we 
attempt erecting new ones. 

The king hath had no opportunity as yet of showing 
what his dispositions are towards the American 
Churches, excepting that in general all his dispositions 
are good. But whom he will consult particularly on 
this head hath not hitherto appeared. I presume the 
Episcopal Clergy will transmit addresses to him, as 
their predecessors, when they were much fewer, did to 
the late king. This may lead him to inquire concern- 
ing them, and express himself in relation to them. If 
any such addresses come to me, I will take the best 
care of them that I can. 

You shall hear further, as occasion may require, from 
your loving brother, 

Tho. Cant. 



184 APPENDIX. 

Lambeth, December 10, 1761. 
Good Dr. Johnson, 

I have been a very bad correspondent, and scarcely 
dare promise to amend, though I propose it, God 
willing. Besides much extraordinary business arising 
from the king's accession, marriage, and coronation, 
and two visitations of distant parts under my jurisdiction, 
I have had a severe fit of the stone, and am now under 
a second fit of the gout within these six months ; and 
must not hope, in my sixty-ninth year, that these com- 
plaints will grow lighter, but expect to be overwhelmed 
by additional ones. However, I have forced myself to 
take up my pen, to make my excuse to you as well as 
I can. 

You judged rightly from my letter of January 20, 
that I had written a former, which had not come to 
your hands. It was written November 4, 1760. I 
should have sent a duplicate of it soon after. But all 
that I can do now is to send you a copy, and another 
proxy, that which accompanied it being, I presume, 
lost with it. 

I thank you for your draught of an address for 
Bishops on a peace. Would to God both events were 
nearer than they seem to be at present. The right 
time to try is certainly when a peace is made, if cir- 
cumstances afford any hope of success. But this is 
a matter of which you in America cannot judge; and 
therefore I beg you will attempt nothing without the 
advice of the Society, or of the Bishops. The address 
of the Clergy in and near Boston to the king upon his 
accession, which was sent to the late Bishop of London 



APPENDIX. 185 

to be presented, never was presented, because he 
tliought it mentioned Bishops prematurely. When I 
presented that which came from New York, signed by 
you, I told the king that there had been one from New 
England transmitted to Bishop Sherlock (who was 
dead when I spoke to his majesty), but that what he 
had done with it, I knew not. I gave him that copy of 
the college address which was under the common seal. 

I have received a very obliging letter from the 
Clergy assembled at Philadelphia, May 29, 1761, on 
occasion of my letter to Mr. Maclaneghan, with a re- 
quest that I would give leave for its being printed. 
But as I am assured that his party is declining, I 
thought it unnecessary. 

Many thanks to you for the tracts which you have 
written and sent me. I have read them with much 
pleasure, as I hope many have done. 

Before I received your letter, informing me that Mr. 
Viets, a person, I think, unknown to me, desired he 
might come and be ordained to assist Mr. Gibbs, the 
Society had ordered that a successor to Mr. Gibbs 
should be sent. But nothing hath been done in con- 
sequence of this order. And if Mr. Gibbs be not in low 
circumstances, and the assistant will be content with 
part of the salary, that will be the better scheme. 

Mr. Read, who seems to be a very prudent worthy 
man, hath been at Oxford, and made inquiry concerning 
Mr. Cooper, whom he seems desirous to have at New 
York college, and probably hath written to you con- 
cerning him. His character in the university is very 
good ; and he hath applied himself diligently to Hebrew 
this year. He is very willing to come to you, but 



186 APPENDIX. 

only as Vice-President. You will consider of this, and 
specify what you can afford to give, unless you have 
heard of any other person. I can hear of no other. 

The new Bishop of London (Dr. Hayter) is a very 
able, and active, and spirited man, and hath much in- 
fluence with some who have influence with the king. I 
hope, therefore, that he will be very useful to the 
colonies. 

Dr. Bearcroft is dead, and we have chosen Secretary 
Dr. Daniel Burton, who was many years my Chaplain, 
and is Chancellor of the Diocese of Oxford, and Canon 
of Christ Church, a very pious, and sensible, and 
diligent, and careful, and disinterested man ; who, I 
am fully persuaded, will give entire satisfaction, both 
on this side the water and on'yours. 

We receive complaints that Rye hath been vacant, 
and without the administration of the sacraments for a 
long time. But I think we have had no request to 
send a new missionary : and young Mr. Whetmore tells 
us that the Minister must be chosen by the Vestry. 
I have directed our new Secretary to see if he can find 
any thing in our books or papers about this matter. 
Old Mr. Wetmore was there before 1727. 

Mr. Craig, missionary at Chester, in Pennsylvania, 
saith that as he was appointed by the Society before 
the people petitioned for a new Minister, they are very 
backward in complying with any reasonable terms. He 
is coming over for his health, by which means we shall 
hear more particulars, and settle whether he shall re- 
turn to them or not. 

I have not learnt yet what has become of Mr. Camp, 
since his return from the south. Mr. Lindsay, mis- 



APPENDIX. 187 

sionary at Trinity Bay, Newfoundland, hath left his 
mission, and seems too much confused and disordered 
in his head to be fit for any other. I am told from the 
newspapers that good Dr. Cutler is dead. Mr. James 
Greaton was ordained last year for his curate, with a 
view of making him his successor if proper. 

The Convention, which met in Philadelphia in May, 
1760, sent word, that the church of Newcastle, in that 
country, was grown very thin, and that the other and 
more numerous (I suppose at White-Clay) had refused 
to receive Mr. Ross for their missionary. Pray can 
you tell me what the reason of this is ? And what be- 
comes of those who have rejected Mr. Ross? 

Mr. Moir, in North Carolina, sends over large ac- 
counts of multitudes baptized by him. At the same 
time Governor Dobbs saith, he hears Mr. Moir doth 
but little, and doubts the truth of his numbers. Can 
you give me any information about this matter? 

Mr. Martin, of St. Andrew's, in South Carolina, is 
come over hither, and hath very honourably told the 
Society that he thinks'his salary of thirty pounds a year 
may be better employed by them. I wish we had more 
such instances, where circumstances will allow them. 
And I cannot help thinking that the laity of our 
Church abroad are not so liberal to their ministers as 
they might be, and as those of other denominations are, 
but lean too hard upon the Society : in which, perhaps, 
their ministers sometimes encourage them, or connive 
at them, in order to live upon better terms with them. 
You will tell me whether I am right in this notion. 

A strict examination hath been made here into the 
state of our Barbadoes affairs, which appear to have 



188 APPENDIX. 

been very bad for many years past ; and a new com- 
mittee is appointed to watch over them more diligently 
for the future. At the head of this committee is Dr. 
Drummond, now Archbishop of York, a man of very 
extraordinary talents for business of all sorts : and I am 
persuaded that we shall reap great advantages from 
what will be done. 

I pray God to bless you, good Dr. Johnson; and I 
beg you to pray for your loving brother, 

Tho. Cant. 



Lambeth, August 18, 1762.' 
Good Dr. Johnson, 
The bearer is Mr. Cooper. God grant he may prove 
a proper man, and useful amongst you. I am not able 
at present to enlarge : for I have had the gout near 
three months in my right hand, which is still very weak 
and stiff; and it hath now seized my left, and I write 
in great pain. Otherwise, through the divine mercy, I 
am well; and I hope to send you a long letter soon. 
Dr. Jay will tell you, so far as he knows, for he doth 
not know the whole, what difficulties there have been 
about the collection for your college. I think the 
agreement between him and Dr. Smith a very right one, 
and beneficial to both colleges. Favour Mr. Cooper 
with your advice about every thing ; and if you think 
he is going wrong in any respect, either in his method 
of instruction or his conduct, tell him your thoughts in 
a friendly and frank manner, supporting him amongst 



APPENDIX. 189 

Others at the same time. I really think he will take it 
well, God bless you and your society in every thing. 
I am your loving brother, 

Tho. Cant. 



Lambeth, October, 6, 1762. 
Good Dr. Johnson, 

I am fallen again into my old fault of not answering 
your letters regularly. But indeed I have more busi- 
ness here than my declining health will permit me to go 
through as I ought. On the first of June the gout 
seized my right hand, and disabled me, I think, for 
more than two months, from subscribing my name with 
it : nor is it well yet. When it grew better, my left 
hand was attacked ; and as that mended, the same dis- 
temper laid hold on one foot and knee, of which it is 
now in possession, not without threatening the other. 
But God's will be done. I hope Mr. Cooper is or soon 
will be with you, and will answer expectation. I gave 
him such advice as I could : the best part of it was, 
that he should consult you, and follow your direction 
in every thing. I promised him to send some books 
after him ; and they were carried for that purpose three 
days ago to Dr. Jay's lodgings. You will be pleased to 
tell him this, and to add, that they are only what I told 
him they would be, such duplicates from among my 
books, good or bad, as I could spare ; for I have lent 
the rest of my duplicates to my Chaplains. Dr. Jay 
hath undoubtedly acquainted you with what hath been 
done for the two colleges. I approved the proposal of 
a joint collection, as the best way for both. The Lord 



190 APPENDIX. 

President (Earl of Granville) opposed your college 
very strongly, and engaged Lord Egremont, Secretary 
of State, to take the same side ; but at last we got the 
better. Dr. Smith hath acted very honourably and dis- 
interestedly in this whole affair ; and was well contented 
with my procuring twice as much from the king for 
New York college as for Philadelphia, because the 
former is a royal foundation, and hath no other patron. 
A pamphlet hath been sent me from America, entitled, 
" The real A dvantages which Ministers and People may 
enjoy by conforming to the Church of England, faithfully 
considered and impartially represented." It is written in 
a ludicrous manner, yet with strong virulence, and seems 
likely enough to do great mischief. Yet surely the 
dissenters who have any seriousness cannot approve 
such a method of writing against us ; at least they 
might be brought to disapprove it by the prudent 
use of very mild and friendly remonstrances, setting 
forth the uncharitableness of such treatment, and 
the injustice of such representations. With the 
author himself stronger expostulations, yet grave and 
gentle ones, might be used ; begging him, with fit ex- 
pressions of concern for him on some of the more 
flagarant enormities of his pen, to consider what spirit 
he is of. Some good persons, who are not of our 
Church, one should hope, might thus be brought over 
to take part with us. And other ways of answering, I 
apprehend, would do us little good, but perhaps much 
harm. The American facts alleged or alluded to are 
so many, that no one who hath not been a good while 
in our colonies can make a full answer, unless more 
than ordinary pains were taken to furnish him with 

t 



APPENDIX. 191 

materials. And an intemperate answer would be, and 
a defective one might be, worse than none. I had not 
an opportunity of knowing the contents of this pamph- 
let till Dr. Smith was gone out of town to the north. 

■K**« * * «* «» * • 

I should have said one thing more about the pamphlet, 
which is more material than all the rest, that wherein- 
soever we are justly accused. Clergy or people, we 
should own it, and mend ; which is the only good 
answer in such cases. The Society hath not met since 
May. I have been ill, and the Bishops, the Secretary, 
and the Treasurer out of town. In the mean time I 
have paid the bill of five hundred pounds from your 
college out of my own pocket. And I think I have 
secured from the crown one hundred and seventy 
pounds for the damages done by the soldiers to Mr. 
Charlton's glebe on Staten Island. I hope there will 
not fail to be a meeting next week . Whether I shall 
be able to go to it is very doubtful. But at least I pro- 
mise myself that I shall talk over matters with such as 
can go ; and then I propose, God willing, to write you 
another letter: for there are several particulars in yours 
of last April, relative to Society affairs, yet unanswered 
by me. But I must go no further at present. Only I 
assure you that no one hath hitherto intimated to me 
the least desire of the office of Bishop in America : and 
that I am entirely of your opinion, that the crown 
should not begin with Clergymen already settled there. 
God bless yoU;, good Dr. Johnson, Pray for your loving 

brother, 

Tno. Cant. 



192 APPENDIX. 

Lambeth, March SO, 1763. 
Good Dr. Johnson, 

I thank you for the kind condolence which you ex- 
press in your letter of January 6. I was then in a 
fresh fit of the gout, and have another upon me now. 
These attacks unfit me greatly for business, else I 
should have written to you sooner. As Mr. Beach hath 
undertaken to answer the late virulent pamphlet, I 
hope he will do it in such a manner as to win over the 
more moderate of the dissenters from some of their 
prejudices against us, and shame even the more vehe- 
ment, by a good example, into some degree of mildness 
and fairness. My meaning was not to intimate that I 
knew the name of the writer, but only to signify a doubt 
whether it might not be Dr. Mayhew, which I found 
some persons had suspected. I knew not whether Mr. 
Beach, who in a letter some time ago, mentioned him- 
self as declining, would be willing to undertake such a 
work, and therefore had intended to propose it to Mr. 
Apthorp, of whose abilities and temper the Bishop of 
Norwich gives me the highest character. But I am 
cflad your information came time enough to prevent me, 
for one may suffice. **»*•* 
»****■ 

Probably our Ministry will be concerting schemes 
this summer, against the next session of Parliament, 
for the settlement of his Majesty's American dominions ; 
and then we must try our utmost for Bishops. Hitherto 
little hath been said to them, and less by them, on 
the subject. Our dissenters, however, give out the 
contrary, and endeavour to raise an alarm. God prosper 
us if it be his will. 



APPENDIX. 193 

I have not heard that any application hath been made 
for a Doctor's degree for Mr. Chandler *, but shall be 
ready at any time to forward one, as I understand from 
you that he deserves it so well. 

Dr. Burton will write to you concerning the several 
missions. As the Society had, on your recommenda- 
tion, appointed Mr. Palmer for Rye, and sent him 
notice of it, before Mr. Punderson was named on the 
occasion, we cannot change the appointment without 
Mr. Palmer's consent. I shall be glad if he consents 
voluntarily ; but we must not press him against his 
inclination. The people at Rye may refuse him if they 
will, and take the maintenance of Mr. Punderson upon 
themselves, and we shall be very well pleased. 

We have heard nothing directly from Hartford yet. 
Whenever a fit opportunity offers, we shall be very 
desirous of doing whatever may be agreeable to you. 
And I assure you I will do nothing to retard your re- 
tirement, beyond expressing my wishes that you would 
be so kind to your college and to Mr. Cooper as to 
give him a competent time for becoming and showing 
himself in some degree proper to succeed you. 

It grieves me to concur in postponing any of the 

* Dr. Johnson had recommended him in the following words, in 
a letter of January 6, 1762 : " We are told here that Mr. Chandler 
has a Doctor's degree at Oxford, which seems strange, as no 
application was ever made for it, and as Mr. Cooper thinlcs he 
must have known of it if it had been. However, I wish it may be 
done, if it has not ; for I have no man like-minded with him in 
caring for the interest both of religion and learning, or hath made 
so good proficiency in the study of cither, or is likely to be so great 
an ornament to both." 



194 APPENDIX. 

new misisions which you would have us establish. But 
indeed some of those which we have established al- 
ready in New England and New York have so few 
members of our Church in them, and there are so great 
numbers in other parts destitute of all instruction, 
whom we may hope to secure to our Church, by send- 
ing missionaries to them before other teachers get 
amongst them, I mean the new and frontier settlements, 
that I think we cannot avoid preferring the latter. 
Would to God we could effectually assist both ; but 
we must not bring ourselves under a necessity of 
making another collection for the Society soon. In- 
deed it must be put off some years the longer, on 
account of that which is now making for the two 
colleges ; for they will be considered as akin one to 
<;he other. 

I told you that I thought I had secured one hun- 
dred and seventy pounds for Mr. Charlton's damages 
on his glebe. And I have still reason to believe that 
the King did sign a warrant for that sum to be paid 
here to the Society's Treasurer. But remonstrances 
were made against it by some officer through whose 
hands the business was to pass. And now the Secretary 
at War hath written to Sir JefFry Amherst about it, whose 
answer is in these words : " The case of Mr. Charlton 
is this, that he really suffered by the encampment of 
the troops ; and I was in hopes that the Assembly of 
the Province would have considered his losses. If 
that doth not take place, I shall pay him out of the 
contingencies in the manner you are pleased to direct." 
This, therefore, I hope will be done. I hope also that 
Mr. Charlton will lay out what he receives upon his 



APPENDIX. 195 

glebe faithfully and prudently. If you can contri- 
bute to his doing so I hope you will : for I know not 
how to contrive that the money may be paid into the 
hands of any one that should act as trustee on the 
occasion. 

I must not omit to tell you, that Mr. Cooper, in the 
only letter I have had from him, dated December 2, 
1762, expi'esses in the strongest manner, his sense of 
the numberless civilities and acts of kindness which he 
saith he hath received from you. Continual good advice 
will be the greatest kindness that you can show him. 

It would be inconvenient and disagreeable to Mr. 
Beach, and not desirable in itself, to have a formal 
controversy raised upon this wretched pamphlet. And 
in order to avoid it, his answer may be anonymous, 
as the pamphlet is ; or, however, he may signify that he 
doth not intend to take notice of any reply, or enter 
further into a discussion of particulars; his principal 
view being to convince persons, and, if it may be, the 
writer himself, that since we are all to give an account 
of every idle word, and no denomination of Christians 
is faultless, and mutual charity is the great precept of 
our Saviour, we should treat all religious matters with 
seriousness, and one another with mildness and candour. 

* * # * 

I am, with much regard. 

Your loving brother, 

Tho. Cant. 



o 2 



196 



APPENDIX. 



Lambeth, May 22, 1764. 
Good Dr. Johnson, 
Since my last of September 28, 1763, 1 have been fa- 
voured with two letters fromyou, dated October 20 and 
December 20. The first did not seem to require an im- 
mediate answer ; and about the time that I received the 
second, the gout seized both my hands and both my 
feet. It made several attacks on my right hand, and 
disabled me from making almost any use of it for two 
or three months. I am now, God be thanked, nearly 
as well as usual ; and have received all the pamphlets 
which were designed for me from America. When Dr. 
Mayhew's Observations, &c. were reprinted here, it 
was thought necessary that an answer to them should 
also be printed here ; which was done before the 
Candid Examination, and Letter to a Friend, came to 
my hands. A hundred copies of the answer were sent 
by the Society to the colonies ; and I hope you have 
had one of them. It was believed, that they would do 
no harm amongst you, and might do some good, though 
the Candid Examination, &,c. was undoubtedly suf- 
ficient for your part of the world. If you see any mis- 
takes in the Answer, or hear of any objections to any 
part of it, that seem to be material, be pleased to send 
an account of them, with such remarks as you think 
proper. I have Dr. Mayhew's Defence of his Observa- 
tions. He manifests the same spirit as before, and 
runs out into many things of but little consequence to 
the Society. The case of Mr. Price and Mr. Barrett, 
^p.l25, &c. is new to me ; and if it be truly represented. 



APPENDIX, 197 

the former seenjs to have been blameable. If any reply- 
is made, I hope it will be short and cool. Some angry 
dissenter hath published a pamphlet, entitled, " The 
Claims of the Church of Englatid seriously considered, in 
a Letter to the Author of an Answer to Dr. Mayhew" 
There is but little in it relative to the Society, and no- 
thing that requires confutation. 

The affair of American Bishops continues in suspense. 
Lord Willoughby of Pavham, the only English dis- 
senting Peer, and Dr. Chandler, have declared, after 
our scheme was fully laid before them, that they saw 
no objection against it. The Duke of Bedford, Lord 
President, hath given a calm and favourable hearing to 
it, hath desired it may be reduced to writing, and 
promised to consult about it with the other Ministers 
at his first leisure. Indeed, I see not how Protestant 
Bishops can decently be refused us, as in all pro- 
bability a Popish one will be allowed, by connivance 
at least, in Canada. The ecclesiastical settlement of 
that country is not made yet, but is under considera- 
tion; and I hope will be a reasonable and satisfactory 
one. Four Clergymen will be appointed for Florida, 
with salaries of one hundred pounds each ; and four 
Schoolmasters, with twenty-five pounds each : and the 
Society have been desired to provide them. This I 
consider as a good omen ; yet much will depend on 
various circumstances, and particularly on the opinion, 
or persuasion concerning the opinion of the Americans, 
both dissenters and Churchmen. 

The Bishop of London (Dr. Osbaldiston) died last 
week. Poor man, he was every way unequal to that 
station. His successor. Dr. Terrick, is a sensible and 



198 APPENDIX. 

good tempered man, greatly esteemed as a preacher, 
and personally liked by the King, as well as favoured 
by the Ministry : therefore I hope he will both have 
considerable influence and use it v/ell. He was Re- 
sidentiary of St. Paul's Church when I was made Dean. 
I had no acquaintance with him before, but we have 
been very good friends ever since, and I doubt not 
but we shall remain such, and consult together about 
American affairs. 

We must not run the risk of increasing jthe outcry 
against the Society, especially in the present crisis, 
and so perhaps lose an opportunity of settling Bishops iii 
our colonies, by establishing two or three new missions 
in New England. Our affairs are not to be carried on 
with a high hand ; but our success, if we do succeed, 
must arise from conciliating the minds of men : and 
this ought to be laboured very diligently abroad as 
well as at home. 

The Society hath agreed, in pursuance of a proposal 
made by Dr. Smith, to establish a proper number of 
corresponding societies, with an agent or president for 
each of them, to give information and advice concern- 
ing all needful affairs, and act for the Society in all 
requisite cases. But this general scheme cannot be 
brought into due form for execution till we see whether 
Bishops can be obtained, and how many. 

The Archbishop of York is very active in our busi- 
ness, as well as able. He hath brought the estate of 
Codrington college out of a most lamentable condition 
into a very hopeful one. And he hath done a great 
deal with the Ministers in our ecclesiastical concerns. 
But these, and particularly what relates to Bishops, 



APPENDIX. 199 

must be managed in a quiet, private manner. Were 
solicitors to be sent over prematurely from America 
for Bishops, there would come also solicitors against 
them : a flame vjrould be raised, and we should never 
carry our point. Whenever an application from thence 
is really wanted, and become seasonable, be assured 
that you will have immediate notice. 

I have h ear d nothing yet of Dr. Barclay's Defence, 
nor hath he mentioned to me the propriety of a degree 
for Mr. Chandler, though I had a letter from him, dated 
January 20. I desire to know what college degree 
Mr. Chandler hath, and of what standing he is in 
that college, and the same of Mr. Caner. 

Concerning the other particulars in your letters I 
presume the Secretary hath written to you, and there- 
fore I shall only add, that I heartily pray God to give 
you every blessing needful for you, and earnestly de- 
sire your prayers in return, for your loving brother, 

Tho. Cajmt. 



Lambeth, July 31, 1766. 

Good Dr. Johnson, 

I am very much ashamed that I have so long delayed 

to answer your letters, and still more grieved that I 

cannot do it now to my own satisfaction or yours. It is 

very probable that a Bishop or Bishops would have 

been quietly received in America before the stamp act 

was passed here. But it is certain that we could get 

no permission here to send one. Earnest and continual 

endeavours have been used with our successive Mi- 

f 



200 



APPENDIX. 



nisters and Ministries, but without obtaining more 
than promises to consider and confer about the matter ; 
which promises have never been fulfilled. The King 
hath expressed himself repeatedly in favour of the 
scheme; and hath proposed, that if objections are 
imagined to lie against other places, a Protestant 
Bishop should be sent at least to Quebec, where there 
is a Popish one, and where there are few dissenters to 
take offence. And in the latter end of Mr. Grenville's 
ministry, a plan of an ecclesiastical establishment for 
Canada was formed, on which a Bishop might easily 
have been grafted, and was laid before a committee of 
council. But opinions differed there, and proper per- 
sons could not be persuaded to attend; and in a while 
the ministry changed. Incessant application was made 
to the new ministry : some slight hopes were given, 
but no one step taken. Yesterday the ministry was 
changed again, as you may see in the papers ; but 
whether any change will happen in our concern, and 
whether for the better or the worse, I cannot so much 
as guess. Of late, indeed, it hath not been prudent to 
do any thing, unless at Quebec; and therefore the 
address from the Clergy of Connecticut, which arrived 
here in December last, and that from the Clergy of 
New York and New Jersey, which arrived in January, 
have not been presented to the King. But he hath 
been acquainted with the purport of them, and directed 
them to be postponed to a fitter time. In the mean 
while, I wish the Bishop of London would take out a 
patent like Bishop Gibson's, only somewhat improved : 
for then he might appoint commissaries, and we might 
set up corresponding societies, as we have for some 



APPENDIX. 201 

time intended, with those commissaries at their head. 
He appears 'Unwilling ; but I hope he may at length be 
persuaded to it. Requests have been made to me and 
other Bishops, first for countenance, then for contri- 
butions, to Mr. Wheelock's Indian school. * * 
********* 

Tho. Cant. 



Letter from Bishop Terrick to Dr. Johnsoii, 

I feel, as sensibly as you can wish me to do, the distress 
of the Americans in being obliged, at so much hazard 
and expence, to come to this country for Orders : but 
I own I see no prospect of a speedy remedy to it. 
They who are enemies to the measure of an Episcopacy, 
whether on your part of the globe or ours, have 
hitherto found means to prevent its taking place, 
though no measure can be better suited to every 
principle of true policy, none can be more consistent 
with every idea I have formed of truly religious 
liberty. We want no other motives for declaring our 
sentiments and wishes on the subject, but what arise 
from the expediency, I had almost said the necessity, of 
putting the American Church upon a more respectable 
plan, by the appointment of a Bishop. But whatever 
are our sentiments or wishes, we must leave it to the 
discretion and wisdom of government to choose the 
time for adopting that measure. Whether we shall 
live to see that day ia in the hands of God alone. We 



202 APPENDIX. 

wish only that we could look forward with pleasure and 
enjoy the 4;h ought. 

Accept, Sir, my best wishes for every thing which 
may contribute to your health and happiness, and as- 
sure yourself that I am, with great truth and sincerity. 
Your affectionate brother, 

Ric. London, 



Letters from Bishop Lowth to Dr. Johnson. 

London, May 3, 1768. 
Rev. Sir, 

I am greatly obliged to you for the favour of your let- 
ter, and for the agreeable present with which it was ac- 
companied. I have read your Hebrew and English 
Grammar with much satisfaction, and, I think, in both 
parts, it is as clear and as full as any thing I have met 
with in so small a compass. I am glad to find that the 
study of Hebrew hath made a beginning, and some kind 
of progress in North America : and I doubt not, that, 
having been so well introduced, and still enjoying the 
same patronage and assistance, it will continue to in- 
crease, and, in time, flourish. 

I am really not qualified to give you my opinion, as 
you desire, of Mr. Parkhurst's Lexicon. I never have 
read the book, and my time has been otherwise so 
taken up of late, that I have not been able to examine 
it sufficiently to form a proper judgment of it. The 
most capital book we have in that kind, I think, is Dr. 



APPENDIX. 203 

Taylor's Hebrew Concordance, in two vols, folio. He 
goes very much upon the same principle with Mr. 
Parkhurst. He supposes the prime idea of the root to 
be carried through all the derivations; and is often 
very happy in tracing it through its several progres- 
sions. 

As I think you will be glad to have a more par- 
ticular account than, perhaps, you will otherwise meet 
with, of the progress of a very great and important 
literary undertaking, I send you some copies of Dr. 
Kennicott's last Annual Account of the Collation of the 
Hebrew MSS. of the Old Testament : to which I have 
added a few copies of a pamphlet very lately published 
by the same author ; which is generally allowed to con- 
tain, and to set in a clear light, an indubitable and 
very striking proof of the expediency and real utility 
of the above-mentioned undertaking. You will dis- 
pose of these among your friends, as you please. I beg 
the favour of you to send a copy of each to Dr. 
Chandler, and to Dr. Auchmuty, together with the 
letter directed to each of them, which I take the liberty 
to enclose in this packet. 

I beg likewise your acceptance of a small Treatise 
on English Grammar ; which I should not have pre- 
sumed to have troubled you with, had I not seen that, 
while you were employing your pains on the most 
ancient and important of the learned languages, you 
did not think the cultivation of our own unworthy of 
your labours. 

As to the great and important design of an American 
Episcopate, I see no immediate prospect of its being 
carried into execution. While the state of affairs. 



204 APPENDIX. 

both with us and with you, continues just as it now iS;, 
I am afraid we may not expect much to be done in it. 
I sometimes talk over these matters with much freedom 
with your worthy son, from whose agreeable conversa- 
tion I reap much advantage ; as I receive from him the 
best information of every thing relating to the affairs 
of America. It will give me great pleasure to hear by 
him, from time to time, of your welfare ; and that you 
may enjoy all health and happiness, is the hearty prayer 
of. 

Reverend Sir, 

Your most obedient humble servant, 

R. Oxford. 
P.S. Since the above was written, I have procured 
four copies of Dr. Kennicott's Account for the year 
1766, which I have added to the others, the rather, as 
it contains a curious account of the oldest editions of 
the printed Hebrew Bible. Be pleased to observe, that 
what Dr. K. has undertaken is to collate all the manu- 
scripts of the Hebrew Bible that are in England; and 
to procure collations of the best MSS. from other parts 
of Europe, as far as his subscription shall enable him. 



London, May 15, 1170. 
Rev. Sir, 
I take the liberty of troubling my good friend, your 
son, with the conveyance of a packet to you, containing 
six copies of Dr. Kennicott's publication for this year, 
which you will receive with the greater satisfaction, 
as it contains a complete account of the whole under- 



APPENDIX. 205 

taking of the collation of the Hebrew MSS. of the Old 
Testament; collecting together the several accounts 
before published, with the account for the last year; 
with which the collation is closed. It remains now to 
digest and methodize the variations collected, for an 
edition of the Hebrew Bible, with all the variations, 
which are exceedingly numerous, at the bottom of each 
page ; in which important and laborious work, I trust, 
he will not want proper encouragement and support. 

As I am particularly obliged to Dr. Smith, Provost 
of Philadelphia college, for a present of his late Sermon ; 
and to Dr. Chandler, for his Appeal Defended; and, 
some time ago, to the author of a Vindication of the 
Bishop of Llandaff's Sermon, whom I have lately found 
to be Mr. Inglis, for his judicious, well-written pamph- 
let ; I beg you would be so good as to send to each of 
those gentlemen, with my compliments, a copy of Dr. 
Kennicott's Account. I suppose Dr. Inglis is settled 
in North America, but I do not know. 

I am, with the greatest regard and esteem. 
Reverend Sir, 
Your most obedient humble servant, 

R. Oxford. 

P. S. To Dr. Kennicott's Account I have added six 
•copies of his Proposals, just come from the press; by 
which you will see in what train that great undertaking 
is at present. 



206 APPENDIX. 

London, May 16, 177 K 
Rev. Sir, 

Though I have nothing at present in the literary way 
to communicate to you, yet I cannot omit acknowledg- 
ing your kind letter of December last. Dr. Kennicott 
goes on upon the plan which he published last year. 
His majesty, in consequence of the general recom- 
mendation of the Bishops, has been pleased to give 
him a good establishment ; and has placed him in a 
situation the most proper for the carrying on of his 
great work, in a canonry of Christ Church, Oxford. I 
wish it were as much in my power as, were there an 
opportunity, it would certainly be in my inclination, 
to promote your useful proposal of establishing a 
Hebrew Professorship in North America. We must 
leave to God's good providence this and many other 
improvements in that country, and I doubt not of their 
being in due time accomplished. 

With sincerest wishes for your health and happiness, 
and with the truest regard, I am. Rev. Sir,^ 

Your most obedient humble servant, 

R. Oxford. 



Letter from Bishop Lowth to Dr. Chandler. 

Rev. Sir, 
I hope you will have the goodness to excuse my 
suffering the letter with which you favoured me a year 
ago, to lie by me so long unacknowledged. The real oc- 



APPENDIX. 207 

casion of my neglect was the illness by which I was 
laid up almost the whole of last summer. I intend- 
ed to have written to you before I left London; 
but I was taken ill here, and by imprudently attempt- 
ing a journey to Oxfordshire, in order to be ready to 
attend my duty there, I became much worse. I thank 
God I have perfectly recovered from this very danger- 
ous illness, so as not to be at all sensible of any re- 
mains, or bad consequences of it. 

I had not the pleasure, which you were so kind as 
to design for me, of seeing Mr. Moore. I suppose he 
did not arrive here till after I was gone into the 
country. I do not know whether he went to Oxford 
or not ; but there I was not able to see any one for 
many months. 

I am in a long arrear of thanks to you for many 
agreeable and valuable literary presents, both ecclesi- 
astical and political. In the first place, for your ex- 
cellent Vindication of the Memory of Archbishop 
Seeker, the greatest, the best, and the most unexcep- 
tionable character that our ecclesiastical annals have 
to boast of. What you say in regard to me, in p. 47, 
is perfectly true. If I had been consulted in order to 
give information, I should have added, that as soon as 
I received the pamphlet, I went immediately to the 
author, and expressed to him, in strong terms, my dis- 
approbation of the thing itself, and in particular of his 
addressing it to me, whose great veneration for Arch- 
bishop Seeker's memory he well knew. But, in truth, 
it was a most injudicious, impotent, and contemptible 
attack ; and for the very little time in which it was 
taken notice of, it only fexposed the author. The 



208 APPENDIX. 

pamphlet which you have answered, was received here 
with much the same contempt, but with somewhat more 
indignation ; but had very little effect in answering 
the author's purpose. It was disregarded, and suffered 
to pass without animadversion, and I think rightly. 
The case with you was very different ; your neighbours 
were not so well informed, and you have done very 
good service by effectually refuting it. 

But the nation in general is highly obliged to you 
for your three political pamphlets ; which, I am sure, 
if plain reason and good sense, strongly and forcibly 
urged, and placed in the clearest light, can meet with 
any attention, must have had a great effect, as indeed 
I hear they have ; and I hope so essential a service will 
not be forgotten. 

And now. Sir, what shall I say to you upon this 
great and important subject? I need not enter into it 
very largely, for I can give you my opinion in a very 
few words. Mr. Vardill did me the favour, very lately, 
of communicating to me a letter of yours to him, 
dated in March. My sentiments in regard to what was 
then doing, and what was fit to be done, coincide most 
exactly with yours. I will add what appears to me 
here, and at this time : The ministry you will see, are 
very much in earnest, and the nation is as much in 
earnest as they are ; for the parliamentary supremacy is 
not merely the ministerial, but the national cause, and 
I think will never be given up while the nation has 
ability and strength to support it. At the same time, 
there is a strong desire of reconciliation, and a perfect 
readiness to grant the colonies easy, liberal, and ge- 
nerous terms, in properly limiting and circumscribing 
the power and exercise of taxation. 



APPENDIX. 209 

If it shall please God that these unhappy tumults be 
quieted, and peace and order restored (which event I 
am sanguine enough to think is not far distant), we may 
reasonably hope that our governors will be taught, by 
experience, to have some regard to the Church of 
England in America. * t*«-*** ** 
** *** *« * ******* 

But it will be time enough to consider what ought to 
be done when so blessed an opportunity shall offer 
itself. 

I beg your acceptance of a new edition of my Lec- 
tures, and a Sermon, if they should come to your hands; 
for I do not know but that they may be contraband 
goods, and non-importable. However, I shall with 
this consign them to the care of my friend Mr. Vardill, 
whose conversation and information on the subject of 
America has been of great service and satisfaction to 
me. 

With the sincerest regard, and the highest esteem, I 
have the honour to be. Rev. Sir, your most obedient 
and affectionate humble servant, 

R. Oxford. 

London, May 29, 1775. 



THE END. 



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the Years 1819, 1820, and 1821, through France, Italy, Savoy, 
Switzerland, Part of Germany, bordering on the Rhine, Hoi- 
land, and the Netherlands; comprising Incidents that occurred 
to the Author, who has long suffered unto a total Deprivation 
of Sight ; with various Points of Information collected on his 
Tour. By James Hoxman, R.N. and K.W. With a Portrait 
of the Author, Second Edition. Svo. 13s. 



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